Real returns in rocky year

REASONS: SOME GLOBAL EVENTS PUT SOUTH AFRICA'S BIG POLITICAL AFFAIRS IN CONTEXT

- Izak Odendaal

To a year already packed with political intrigue, drama and a record number of elections, we can now add the sudden, unexpected collapse over the weekend of the Bashar al-Assad dictatorship in Syria after years of violent stalemate.

No one knows what lies ahead for Syria, ruled with an iron fist by the Assad family for five decades. Since the 2011 "Arab Spring", civil war has raged and Assad's regime was propped up by support from Russia and Iran. However, these two countries have been distracted by other conflicts, and rebels seized the opportunity.

These events bring more uncertainty and potential instability to the world's great geopolitical fault line, the Middle East. So far, the oil price - the main financial barometer of Middle Eastern tensions - remains muted.

Elsewhere, a budget stand-off in the French parliament led to Prime Minister Michel Barnier losing a no-confidence vote. This comes just a few weeks after the ruling coalition in Germany fell apart, also because of budget disagreements.

More debt, less debt