It’s not news that many economies of the developing world face barriers to financial inclusion, making it difficult for citizens to both borrow and save; but the good news is that help has arrived in the linking of mobile payments with remittances. From sub-Saharan Africa to Latin America and the Caribbean, mobile money is bringing the previously underbanked into the fold.
It makes good economic sense that when people work toward their own economic benefit, the economy, and society, as a whole benefits—but do these profitable conditions benefit all members of society, or are some left out? Today, fintech challengers are accomplishing what traditional banks have failed to fully achieve—providing fair and open access to basic financial services for all of the world’s citizens.
As economic conditions return to “normal” in the industrial world, policy interest rates will inevitably rise from zero to “normal”—but not necessarily in Latin America and the Caribbean. Central banks in LAC will need to tailor their monetary-policy decisions to tackle the three-pronged challenge of currency depreciation, higher inflation and deceleration in economic activity, as capital flies away from emerging markets.
When considering the world’s fastest-growing economies, the usual suspects of China and India invariably crop up in most discussions. Of course, this is to be expected given that, despite its recent slowdown, China’s GDP (gross domestic product) still grew by 6.7 percent in 2016
As its name suggests, corruption is a contaminating influence on whatever it touches, financial businesses included. That’s why various international parties—business decision-makers, policymakers, regulators, police, journalists, consumers—are seeking collaboration, transparency and partnership as they hash out solutions to the blight of corruption at local and national levels.
For investors with an appetite for high returns even if they are seasoned with high risk, investment in frontier markets, the smallest economies in the developing world, may be worth considering. The best approach is to allocate only a small portion of a portfolio to these potentially profitable but likely volatile markets.
The World Bank Group committed a total of $15.3 billion in financing to Sub-Saharan Africa in the 12 months to June 2014, the highest amount so far, the institution said. About two-thirds of this money was provided as interest-free loans for more than a hundred new projects. The World Bank’s International Development Association, which supports the world’s poorest countries,