Two more underrated countries?

Recently I discussed a few potentially underrated countries.  Since then I have been hearing and reading talk of Venezuela and Ethiopia.  Here is one take on Venezuela:

Venezuela’s economy grew at the fastest pace since 2008 in the first quarter as record oil revenue allowed President Hugo Chavez to finance a boom in housing construction ahead of elections this year.

The economy expanded 5.6 percent from the year earlier, Finance Minister Jorge Giordani said at a press conference in Caracas today. The median estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for growth of 4.1 percent. The economy grew at the fastest pace since the second quarter of 2008, when it expanded 7.8 percent.

On Ethiopia:

The industrial sector in Ethiopia is growing by an average of 10.8% in the last few years said the Ministry of Industry.

The sector has grown by 15% in just the last year accounting for 13.4% of the GDP noted Tadesse Haile, Minister of State for Industry.

According to that source, however, it is still less than $200 million over the last nine months for manufacturing exports.  And there is this:

Huajian, one of China’s biggest shoe manufacturers, plans to invest up to US$2 billion (1.5 billion euros) in Ethiopia to make shoes for export to Europe and North America.

I am not convinced by the prospects of either country but I will monitor these situations more closely than I had in the past.

Comments

Comments for this post are closed