The political instability that has engulfed Egypt since the resignation of former president Hosni Mubarak has threatened to further suppress the country's FDI inflows and has led to a huge decline in tourism. But with a new democratically elected government, stability should return and with it investor confidence.

As the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – realise the decade-old prediction that they would become economic superpowers, attention now turns to the global economies that will follow them.

As the EU imposes an oil embargo on Iran and the screws tighten on neighbouring Syria, foreign companies doing business with the affected countries are scrambling to stay on the right side of the law while hedging against their losses.