Greenwashing is a growing concern among consumers, investors and public institutions alike. In my opinion, it is a misleading and dangerous trend that undermines the progress towards a more sustainable economy. Greenwashing refers to the practice of making misleading claims about the environmental benefits of products, services or investments, often in order to boost sales …
Artificial Intelligence is sweeping through every industry globally, and finance is not left out. AI is assisting to speed up and improve processes in every area of finance, from how organizations manage their money to helping individual consumers make better investment decisions. As Forbes reports, 70% of finance firms employ AI applications like machine learning …
AI Makes Finance Better, But Only When Combined with the Human Factor Read More »
Amid sharply rising global energy and food prices, inflation has threatened to spiral out of control worldwide, and this is prompting concerted action from major central banks. With inflation hitting multi-decade highs in most economies, central banks are responding by hiking interest rates at a similarly record-breaking pace. For instance, the Bank of England recently …
Interest rate hikes fight inflation. Here’s how central banks have acted Read More »
In a survey conducted in November 2020, McKinsey & Co. found that roughly 80% of European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) viewed their economy as “somewhat to extremely weak”. While the sentiment varied across national economies, SMEs in Italy and Spain were the least optimistic, while Germany had the most optimistic. Nearly two years later, …
Why are small businesses losing confidence in national economies? Read More »
As the World Economic Forum reports, oil prices jumped above $110 per barrel in the weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Likewise, natural gas prices more than tripled between mid-February and early March in reaction to the conflict, signaling how the war is affecting energy prices globally. But in the case of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, …
How important is Russian gas in the conflict with Ukraine? Read More »
There are strong arguments that uncertainty has been the defining economic feature of the past three years. From the US-China trade war to COVID-19 and the supply chain crisis of 2021, markets have been constantly up or down with remarkably few (and generally short) periods of stability in between. 2022 has only continued that trend …
Why will the uncertainty in markets continue for a long time? Read More »
For companies still reeling from pandemic tailwinds and last year’s supply chain shocks, the Russia-Ukraine conflict couldn’t have come at a worse time. While most organizations were focused on consolidating growth gained within the past year, new concerns raised by the war have forced boardrooms back into crisis mode as they grapple with rising energy …
Although Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) emerged before the pandemic, the attractive e-commerce payment option is soaring on post-COVID adoption. BNPL provides short-term financing to online shoppers, allowing them to split the cost of purchases into affordable installments. For most shoppers, BNPL is a comfortable payment alternative since it lets them enjoy goods instantly while …
How BNPL works and how it’s spreading after the pandemic crisis Read More »
In the past two decades, national banks pumped trillions into their economies to grapple with recession and stimulate economic growth in a process called Quantitative Easing (QE). However, with inflation at a 40-year high, the Federal Reserve, alongside other central banks, is backtracking from this policy in a bid to raise interest rates and disincentivize …
How could the FED implement Quantitative Tightening? Read More »
The World Bank has warned in a recent report that, due to headwinds such as inflation and vaccine inequality, the world faces a two-speed recovery that could damage prior strides in global economic development. Although there’s likely to be a general slowdown after the strong rebound in 2021, the results and any eventual recovery that …
World Bank: growth down, towards a two-speed recovery Read More »
