Weekly Digest – 5 June 2015

by Andrey Yakunin on June 5, 2015

This is what I found interesting in the press this week…

The EMPEA has published its annual LPs investment opportunities perception survey which provides insights into how the industry’s major sources of capital value the risk/reward trade off in emerging markets.

This week, the Rouble weakened further than any other time this year. However, the current volatility of the Russian currency strangely coincided with two media events, both occurring towards the end of the week: (a) Chatham House published a very comprehensive paper on Russia-EU relations and possible scenarios of how the current crisis might unravel and (b) Almaz-Antey, the manufacturer of the BUK SAM missiles published a substantiated technical analysis [*] of the Malaysia flight catastrophe which took place in Ukraine’s airspace last year. Following the preliminary findings released by the Dutch authorities earlier in the year, this is the most technically and scientifically based account of how the passenger airliner was actually shot down.

In the rest of the world it is worth noting the further loosening of capital controls announced by the Chinese regulator for domestic investors, and an interesting FT piece giving a sneak preview of how ‘normal’ Iranians live that is drastically different to the image projected by RT as well as CNN.

Economy / Finance

How the Chinese currency came in from the cold, Izabella Kaminska, FT 29/05/2015

Как в России и на Западе росло неравенство доходов, Алексей Захаров, Ведомости, 03/06/2015

Социальную напряженность провоцирует не реальное неравенство, а его восприятие, Николай Эппле, Ведомости, 02/06/2015

Business

Improve work for women to reduce poverty, Merkel tells G7, Roger Boyes, The Times, 03/06/2015

Anne Wojcicki, the freewheeling queen of home DNA testing, Andrew Ward, FT, 03/06/2015

Two pioneering academics make the case for commodity index investments, Gregory Meyer and John Authers, FT, 03/06/2015

Private share trading takes off as tech companies shun IPOs, Leslie Hook, FT, 02/06/2015

Robotics pioneers voice frustration with UK funding rules, Tanya Powley, FT, 31/05/2015

Annual Global Limited Partners Survey, EMPEA, 30/04/2014

China to allow individuals buy overseas financial assets, Gabriel Wildau, FT, 29/05/2015