The USD remains largely consolidative, with the modest gains achieved on Friday last week not resulting in any build-up of directional momentum. This suggests improving demand to import copper into China and copper producers around the world will be ...

For the first time since 1988, Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with its North African neighbour, Morocco, on 24 August. While, the risk of war is very low, there is material risk of a spike in disruption in the Western Sahara that Morocco clai...

Democracy is failing again in Tunisia. Ennahda leader and Parliament Speaker, Rashid Ghannouchi. Tunisia equities are very illiquid, with average daily value traded of merely US$1.1mn, and fell merely 0.7% (at the time of writing) on 26 July. However...

Crude oil prices are at their highest since 2018 as economic activity picks up globally while OPEC regulates market dynamics. the court ruling against Shell's climate impact) – to speed up the transition to cleaner energy. However, the reserves and p...

The spark for clashes was Polisario's blockade (since 21 October) of a road through Guerguerat on the Moroccan-Mauritanian border. The historic context dates back to the Spanish colonial withdrawal from the region in 1975 and the subsequent war betwe...

Working conditions, supply chain transparency, and labour rights are increasingly being mentioned in the same breath as corruption, bribery and political exposure when it comes to risks faced by investors in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). A...