May 2008

THE ELEPHANT AND THE DRAGON   Often uneasy neighbors and fierce competitors, India and China are finding ways to cooperate as their influence on the global economy grows.     India's prime minister Manmohan Singh and China's premier Wen Jiao ...

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS Financial turmoil and an economy on the brink of recession are testing US companies’ determination to reduce their environmental impact.     Growing fears about a global economic slowdown and the credit crunch wreaked havoc on global financial ...

ANALYSIS Deft maneuvering is helping Russia’s banks dodge the fallout from the credit crunch, but significant risks remain—particularly for smaller banks and their customers.     While the crises at UK mortgage lender Northern Rock and US investment bank Bear ...

CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE Despite continuing political upheaval, many countries in Central and Eastern Europe are more concerned about reining in their buoyant economies than surviving the global economic downturn.     Although the politics in Warsaw may be "noisy," ...

ANNUAL SURVEY / BEST EMERGING MARKET BANKS In our 15th annual survey of top banking performers in emerging markets, we name those banks that are consistently providing high levels of service in fast-evolving markets.   Download PDF (2 MB) The ...

BRAZIL     Brazilian mining giant Vale walked away from Xstrata acquisition talks. Vale, the Brazilian mining giant formerly known as CVRD, decided to walk away from its proposed $90 billion acquisition of Swiss miner Xstrata after both sides failed ...

OIL PRODUCER PLANS TO BE BIG SPENDER     Ecopetrol, Colombia’s state-owned oil company, says it hopes to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange later this year, following a further privatization to help finance an aggressive spending ...

CHINA     Pro-Tibetan protests have dogged the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. China upwardly revised its 2006 and 2007 gross domestic product (GDP) growth numbers, pushing the country closer to surpassing Germany to become the world’s third-largest economy. According ...

AFRICA     Botswana's new president, Seretse Ian Khama. Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is set to continue strongly this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, which says the region is “better placed today to withstand a worsening of ...

INDIA     Indian automobile manufacturers are scaling up production, unfazed by rising inflation. The Indian commerce ministry has announced that it has set India’s export target at $200 billion for 2008-2009. This export target is a part of India’s ...

MIDDLE EAST     GCC monetary leaders are pressing ahead with plans for a single currency, despite pressures to revalue. Central bank governors from the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) gathered in Doha, Qatar, in April ...

RUSSIA     Putin: He may find it hard to play second fiddle. With relations between Russia and the West at post-Cold War lows, US president George Bush met with Russian president Vladimir Putin in early April in Sochi, Russia, ...

DR NEWS   Zhaikmunai, an independent oil and gas exploration business based in Kazakhstan, has concluded the first-ever listing of global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange by a limited partnership. Zhaikmunai raised $100 million in its offering last ...

NEWS   The Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC), a US development finance organization, has committed up to $100 million in initial funding for a sub-Saharan debt fund to be managed by Standard Bank of South Africa. The Standard Africa Development ...

COUNTRY REPORT: THE PHILIPPINES The Philippines seems to be avoiding the worst of the global market slowdown, but there have been a few hiccups along the way.   The financial Makati district in Manila is not feeling the pinch of ...

GLOBAL     A cautious approach: Bank of England governor Mervyn King. The global credit crunch has highlighted just how far regulators and banks in some markets are willing to go to prop up the domestic financial system. However, clear ...

INDIA     Reaching out: The US hopes its firms can win a slice of India's $500 billion spending spree. Bhopal Medical College Trust is the first Indian project to reap the benefits of US Export-Import Bank’s (Ex-Im Bank) Indian ...

PERU     Peru's president Alan Garcia: Fiscal policies led to upgrade. While analysts debated whether Brazil or Panama would win the race to become the next Latin American investment-grade-rated country, Peru beat both countries to the finish line. Citing ...

GLOBAL     Hard landing: Delta's merger with Northwest may make it the biggest airline, but analysts question its prospects. The world’s biggest airline in terms of traffic will be created if the proposed merger of Delta Air Lines and ...

CORPORATE DEBT     Oracle, the world’s third-largest software maker, sold $5 billion of bonds in April, and the successful sale helped to dispel some of the gloom in the corporate bond market. Oracle’s offering of three series of investment-grade ...

GLOBAL EQUITY/DRS   Saudi Arabia’s Inma Bank, a new Islamic financial institution, raised $2.8 billion in its initial public offering of a 70% stake in April, the largest-ever IPO in the kingdom. Samba Capital, a subsidiary of Samba Financial, was ...

  MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS     With the credit crunch putting a damper on private equity deals, mergers and acquisitions have declined, but companies are still willing to dip into cash reserves and even borrow significant amounts of money to ...

FOREIGN EXCHANGE     Following the dollar’s worst quarterly loss against the euro since 2004—a drop of 8.4% in the first three months of this year—currency analysts are watching for signs that the greenback could be ready to make a ...

UNITED KINGDOM       Darling: Favors a collegiate cross-border regulation system.   Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling has been criticized for his handling of the Northern Rock bailout, and he is the subject of an Internet campaign ...

UNITED STATES       George Soros: The "scariest" part of the current turmoil is CDSs. George Soros, founder and chairman of Soros Fund Management, warned the World Economic Forum in Davos in January that the world is facing its ...

FUNDS MANAGERS SPONSORED ROUNDTABLE Global Finance brings together a group of experts to discuss recent developments in the industry. Global Finance: SEPA credit transfers went live on January 28 of this year. What has been the experience of banks and ...