CAPITALIZING ON THE CRISIS RETURN OF THE IMF As crippled nations beat a path to its door, the IMF is enjoying a dramatic return from near-irrelevance. How it wields its revived power and influence will determine its long-term future. ...
AFRICA Regional trading groups are struggling to boost intra-regional trade flows in sub-Saharan Africa. Illicit trade continues to flourish in Southern Africa, with smuggled goods totaling an estimated $50 billion a year. Fears of a global recession and a ...
MIDDLE EAST Determined to avoid repeating past mistakes, oil-rich nations in the Middle East have worked hard to diversify their economies. So far they have fared well, but pitfalls remain. Oil is integral to the Middle East's economic fortunes, ...
LATIN AMERICA President Lula’s bold program of social and economic reform has become a model for economies in Latin America and beyond. Under Lula, Brasilia has focused on growing the economy in a way that benefits people at all ...
THE DECOUPLING DEBATE Proponents of the theory that emerging markets are decoupling from the West’s economies have had a tough year. Their vision may yet be coming true, though. If the United States sneezes, the rest of the world ...
CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE Central and Eastern Europe has transformed from a beacon of hope into a near basket case astonishingly quickly. Its recovery will be a far slower and no less painful process. Hard hit: Hungary was one ...
ASIA Asia’s emerging markets could not avoid the fallout from the credit crunch, but they stand a good chance of emerging stronger than ever as the dust settles. The 21st century has been good to most emerging economies so ...
TREASURY MANAGEMENT: ASIA Facing a unique set of challenges, treasurers in Asia-Pacific are focusing on improving liquidity management. Newton: Organizations placing investment want to know exactly where it is being invested. It is a tough time for corporates ...
ANNUAL REPORT Emerging markets didn’t start this fire, but they may be the best hope for putting it out. The global financial crisis was clearly stamped “Made in USA,” but the outlook for growth in emerging economies is being ...
BEST INTERNET BANKS 2008 In the second of a two-part series, Global Finance identifies the best corporate/institutional and consumer Internet banks globally and in six regions. These are tough times for banks to focus on Internet ...
BRAZIL Brazil’s banks continued their consolidation trend, with the most recent deal in November creating Latin America’s largest financial group. Itaú, Brazil’s second-largest non-state-owned bank, announced its acquisition of Unibanco, the country’s third-largest, in a stock transaction valued ...
CHINA Chinese authorities in infrastructure spending spree to stimulate economy. China will spend 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) over the next two years on infrastructure and social welfare projects, the country’s State Council announced on November 9. Policymakers ...
DR NEWS Cementos Argos, the fifth-largest cement producer in Latin America, began trading its shares in the US over-the-counter market in the form of American depositary receipts. The Medellín, Colombia-based company makes white and gray cement, as well ...
AFRICA Manuel: Rand's slide will help the country balance its books. Johannesburg-based AngloGold Ashanti, Africa’s largest gold producer, hopes to refinance a $1 billion convertible bond before Christmas, despite current market conditions that have all but closed the ...
MIDDLE EAST Dubai's International Financial Exchange: Simplifying access. In an effort to stimulate more trading by local investors, the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) is now allowing companies to list, trade and clear in UAE dirhams, as well ...
INDIA Boom from bust: State Bank of India is taking on more staff as business builds strongly. India’s job market appears to have escaped unscathed in the global wave of retrenchment. There were concerns that the outsourcing industry ...
NEWS The International Monetary Fund’s new short-term lending program and Federal Reserve swap lines could help ease currency and interest rate pressures in eligible emerging market countries but may be no panacea for the exodus of private funds ...
RUSSIA Medvedev: Struggling through a turbulent first year in office. The Russian government is struggling to contain a rapidly unfolding and sharply accelerating economic crisis. The ruble has continued to slide—the currency has devalued 10% against the dollar ...
COMPANY TO WATCH: TIGER BRANDS/SOUTH AFRICA Tiger Brands, South Africa’s biggest food producer, is expanding internationally, particularly in Africa and primarily through acquisitions. The company recently completed the purchase of a controlling interest in HACO Industries, a Kenya-based ...
ARGENTINA President Kirchner makes overtures to avoid debt default. After months of analysts’ warnings that Argentina may be facing a new debt default, Standard & Poor’s agreed. The ratings agency lowered Argentina’s sovereign rating on October 31 ...
COSTA RICA President Arias successfully concludes free trade agreement. Four years after it was first signed, Costa Rican lawmakers in November finally ratified Cafta, the free trade agreement between Central America, the Dominican Republic and the United States. ...
GLOBAL Brown: A vocal advocate for global financial regulation. After the recent meeting of the Group of 20 countries in Washington, DC, in mid-November, the likelihood of the creation of a new, more international regulatory system for ...
CORPORATE DEBT Participants in the over-the-counter credit default swaps (CDS) market have sharply reduced the notional amount of CDS contracts outstanding this year through a series of portfolio compression cycles, also known as tear-ups. The notional outstanding volume ...
FOREIGN EXCHANGE The dollar will resume its remarkable comeback as slumping economies around the world trigger rising credit defaults and usher in a new flight to safety, currency analysts say. “Developments in the credit and equity markets will ...
GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS The Bank of New York Mellon introduced 31 new global depositary receipt indexes, including a master index of all GDRs traded on the London Stock Exchange. The bank, which acts as depositary for more than 1,300 ...
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS Government-encouraged bank mergers and bailouts are keeping global M&A; activity alive amid the financial crisis, which has severely restricted financing for corporate buyouts. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo’s $15.1 billion acquisition of Wachovia, which derailed a ...
JAPAN Japanese PM Taro Aso lends a hand in economic recovery. Japanese prime minister Taro Aso may have had his 15 minutes of fame at the Group of 20 summit meeting in Washington last month. With the United ...
GLOBAL More companies are tightening the screws on customer credit in the wake of the crunch. As the credit crunch continues to wreak havoc in the corporate and financial worlds and shows clear signs of seeping into the ...
RUSSIA Deripaska: A dramatic turnaround The global financial crisis is sucking Russia’s oligarchs into its vortex. Information provider Bloomberg recently estimated that the combined wealth of the 25 richest Russians had plummeted 62% over the six-month period ended ...
GLOBAL McDowall: A more forensic approach to risk is needed. Regulators across the world may soon be pooling information in an attempt to police global banks’ liquidity risk. Managing liquidity risk, which was not high up on the ...
