The EU’s trade commissioners had a busy start to the year as the Union closed deals with India and the Mercosur countries. This reflects the European strategy of diversifying trade flows in a changing global landscape. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the trade deal with India as the “mother of all deals”. The agreement eliminates or reduces trade ta ...

Industrial competitiveness has moved to the top of the European policy agenda. Next week, European leaders will convene at an informal summit in Alden Biesen to discuss how Europe’s industrial base can be safeguarded. Earlier this week, the Flemish Government announced that it will allocate €2 billion over the next ten years to support industry. This is an important step, but i ...

AI wrappers are going to capture the majority of the value created… … just like the cloud wrappers did in 2010s.   Source: Jefferies   Introduction Everything wraps something (except for companies selling sand). Netflix, after switching from renting out DVDs to a streaming service, wrapped the content it licensed from Disney, Comcast, and others. Airbnb wraps accommodations. A ...

In October last year, the Econopolis team had the chance to visit Boston Dynamics at their headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. After a fascinating tour through the company’s history, we even got to interact with Spot, their famous dog-like robot built to walk through real-world environments. Naturally, we couldn’t resist asking about their legendary humanoid, Atlas. But when ...

Econopolis and Allianz have found common ground in their shared ambition to take a different approach to traditional wealth management in Belgium. They are therefore jointly launching Twain, an innovative wealth management solution for high net worth individuals with assets of €200,000 or more. To make this possible, Allianz Benelux is joining Econodigital, the joint venture in which Twain is being developed, as a 50% partner.

De-dollarization is less new and less outspoken than headlines make you believe   On Wednesday, our founder and Chief Economist Geert Noels appeared on Terzake to discuss the continued decline of the US dollar and the concept of De-dollarization. This means a structural shift in the reserve currency status of the US dollar and its fading dominance in global transactions and tra ...

At the North Sea Summit in Hamburg, European leaders sent a strong and necessary signal. By announcing a €1 trillion investment trajectory in offshore wind, grids and related infrastructure across the North Sea, Europe is betting on scale, cooperation and predictability to deliver clean and affordable energy. This matters. The North Sea Summit is not just about climate ambition ...

In The Lord of the Rings, tGollum famously called the engraved golden ring “my precious”. These days, plenty of jewellery owners might catch themselves saying the same, given how sharply precious metal prices have risen. Fortunately for Gollum, this ring did not contain a natural diamond. Our clients who have read our 2025 Q4 Econoviews have seen this graph recently. But an upd ...

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to meSpeaking words of wisdom, let it beAnd in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of meSpeaking words of wisdom, let it be(The Beatles)   Just a few weeks into 2026 uncertainty reigns. Geopolitically the world is moving from one regime to a new yet unknown one. Many countries are experiencing domestic tur ...

For decades, economic growth and rising CO₂ emissions moved in lockstep. This map shows how that relationship has changed across the European Union. Between 2010 and 2024, most EU economies expanded while cutting their carbon footprint, a pattern known as absolute decoupling. But the strength, drivers, and interpretation of this decoupling vary across countries.   The map shows ...