When a state like China or Saudi Arabia goes shopping in other countries, how big are the items on its shopping list, and what do they cost? The answers may surprise you. The ‘wish list’ ranges from football clubs to nuclear power stations and the costs of these items can run from tens of millions to billions of dollars.
Where does the money come from to fund these purchases? What do governments hope to achieve by acquiring premium overseas assets? These are increasingly important questions for geographers with an interest in globalisation and global systems. The answers lie in the study of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) — the global-scale ‘piggy banks’ which many states rely on to build global inf luence and diversify their income sources.
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