The Russia–Ukraine Conflict and Different Geopolitical Dangers

Joachim Klement, CFA, is the creator of Geo-Economics: The Interaction between Geopolitics, Economics, and Investments from the CFA Institute Analysis Basis.

The struggle in Ukraine is dominating the headlines. For now.

However the battle’s oblique reverberations will ripple far past the borders of its combatants and their allies. Certainly, they might give rise to new and diversified geopolitical dangers all through the world.

The struggle’s potential impact on the worldwide grain provide and meals inflation is particularly alarming. Ukraine is called the “bread basket of Europe,” and along with Russia, it provides wheat to creating international locations throughout Africa, the Center East, and Central Asia.

There are already reviews that many Ukrainian farmers are abandoning their fields proper at the start of the sowing season to defend their nation. The world can pay a worth.

The struggle might lead to a whole or near-complete failure of the 2022 Ukrainian wheat harvest. Russian wheat exports in the meantime might drop to zero because the nation diverts its meals commodities for home use within the face of crippling worldwide sanctions.

Many international locations rely on Russian and Ukrainian grain imports to feed their populations. The warring nations are liable for a minimum of 80% of the grain provide in Benin and Congo in Africa; Egypt, Qatar, and Lebanon within the Center East; and Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan in Central Asia. All these states must discover new sources of grain and pay a lot increased costs for them.

And that may compound an already unhealthy state of affairs. Even earlier than the battle, meals inflation was growing. Over the past 12 months, it reached 17.6% and 4.8% 12 months over 12 months (YoY) in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), respectively. These ranges are harking back to people who preceded the Arab Spring uprisings again in 2011. The state of affairs is much more excessive in Turkey, the place a quickly declining lira propelled YoY meals inflation to 64.5%.

Going ahead, a number of components might propel meals costs even increased. Past the dearth of grain exports from Ukraine and Russia, spiking power costs will improve delivery and fertilizer prices. With Russia, a serious fertilizer exporter, going through extreme sanctions, there can be much more upward strain on fertilizer costs. This may add gas to the fireplace and ship meals inflation ever increased. In developed international locations, whereas the ache varies throughout the earnings spectrum, such developments can largely be ameliorated by reductions in client discretionary spending: Individuals modify by paying extra for meals and fewer on journey, leisure, and so forth. However in creating nations, the place meals takes up a bigger share of whole residing bills and there may be much less discretionary spending, starvation is a extra acute danger.

The Arab Spring is a vivid instance of how such situations can ignite civil unrest and geopolitical tensions. It’s not an remoted occasion. The peasants’ rebellions within the Center Ages, the French Revolution, and the Revolutions of 1848, for instance, all display how growing meals insecurity can set off political and social upheaval. The impact is so sturdy that Rule 6 of my “10 Guidelines for Forecasting” states:

“A full abdomen doesn’t riot. 

“Revolutions and uprisings hardly ever happen amongst people who find themselves nicely fed and really feel comparatively protected. A scarcity of private freedom is just not sufficient to spark insurrections, however an absence of meals or water or widespread injustice all are.”

The international locations that rely on grain from Russia and Ukraine together with the share of their populations that had been at medium or excessive meals danger earlier than the current battle are charted within the graphic under. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan together with Egypt and Congo are amongst these on the most danger given their reliance on Russian and Ukrainian grain imports, their current meals insecurity, or mixture of the 2.

Meals Insecure and Depending on Grain Imports from Ukraine and Russia

However excessive meals inflation isn’t the one driver of potential turmoil. Constructing on current insights from Chris Redl and Sandile Hlatshwayo, who use machine studying to establish the predictors of social upheaval, we constructed a Civil Strife Threat Index that ranks international locations primarily based on 5 key stability metrics:

1. The proportion of their whole grain imports from Russia and Ukraine, in accordance with UN Comtrade information
2. The share of their populations with reasonable or excessive meals insecurity, in accordance with the World Financial institution
3. Their youth unemployment price primarily based on World Financial institution and Bloomberg information
4. The variety of cell phone subscriptions per 100 folks, in accordance with the World Financial institution
5. Their Democracy Index ranking from The Economist Intelligence Unit

Why these 5 parts? Proof means that international locations with excessive proportions of younger and unemployed males are extra susceptible to instability; cell phones are important for organizing mass protest by way of social media platforms; and an absence of democratic establishments implies that the inhabitants sees no alternative to alter the political management outdoors of direct motion.

Combining these 5 indicators yields perception into which international locations are most vulnerable to civil unrest. The chart under solely contains people who instantly import grains from Russia and Ukraine, so it’s composed of solely these nations that may instantly endure from the fallout of the struggle in Ukraine.

The Civil Strife Index, by Nation

The oil exporters — Saudi Arabia and the UAE — and Turkey, with its shut commerce hyperlinks to the UK and the European Union, are essentially the most troubling from an economics and investing perspective. Instability in these international locations, might have a spillover impact that disrupts power provide chains and international commerce and triggers renewed spikes in inflation in 2022.

To make certain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE largely averted Arab Spring-related unrest and will profit from the rise in oil costs. However, their excessive rankings on the index, pushed particularly by the youth unemployment price in Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s reliance on Ukrainian and Russian grain mixed with their low Democracy Index scores, might warrant some consideration.

The state of affairs in Turkey is especially worrisome given the nation’s already huge inflation price and the sturdy probability of a sovereign default within the subsequent 12 months as a result of devaluation of the lira.

Buyers have to deal with political developments in these international locations within the weeks and months forward. They might function an early warning signal of potential international provide chain disruptions that would have an effect on the UK and Europe.

For extra from Joachim Klement, CFA, don’t miss Threat Profiling and Tolerance and 7 Errors Each Investor Makes (and Easy methods to Keep away from Them) and join his common commentary at Klement on Investing.

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All posts are the opinion of the creator. As such, they shouldn’t be construed as funding recommendation, nor do the opinions expressed essentially replicate the views of CFA Institute or the creator’s employer.

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