Asia

The dollar remains the most dominant currency in global trade finance and forex reserves. But geopolitical tensions and rising trade fragmentation are driving the slow but steady ascent of China’s renminbi. In a geopolitical landscape of rising bifurcation, money talks – and it is telling a story of two worlds drifting ever farther apart. Visual Capitalist shows what the currencies are telling us. Global geopolitical tensions and the rising fragmentation of trade and foreign direct investment patterns are accelerating changes to the way the world makes cross-border payments and foreign exchange reserves. The currency composition, long dominated by the US dollar, has been slowly but surely shifting. Dollar dominance remains undisputed as the global currency of trade and foreign exc...

Oil is inescapable in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The smell of it greets the visitor on arrival and from the shores of the Caspian Sea on which the city is built the tankers are eternally visible. Flares from refineries near the centre light up the night sky, and you do not have to travel far to see fields of “nodding donkeys”, small piston pump oil wells about 6 metres (20ft) tall, that look almost festive in their bright red and green livery. It will be an interesting setting for the gathering of the 29th UN climate conference of the parties, which will take place at the Olympic Stadium in November. Mukhtar Babayev, the minister of ecology for Azerbaijan, who will chair the fortnight-long Cop climate summit, likes to position the country as at the crossroads of the world...