May 2009

  AFRICA IN A SQUEEZE   By Paula Green     Africa faces an uncertain future as its key economies suffer multiple setbacks and the global slump threatens to constrict the flow of investment. By Paula L. Green   Being ...

  EUROPE IN CRISIS     Many of Europe’s former star economies are still struggling to find their feet after falling prey to the credit crunch. By Laurence Neville   Emerging Europe is on the edge of a precipice. Already ...

ANALYSIS FINANCIAL CENTERS     Established financial centers are seeing their dominance challenged in the aftermath of the credit crunch. BY ANITA HAWSER   In early April, as leaders from the Group of 20 countries gathered with the expectation that ...

  HELP OR HINDRANCE?     Mounting concern over the economic prospects of the world’s poorest nations is encouraging developed nations to reassess their aid policies. By Antonio Guerrero   World Bank president Robert Zoellick calls on the developed world ...

ANNUAL SURVEY THE BEST EMERGING MARKET BANKS 2009     In our 16th 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. By Gordon Platt ...

Brazil needs to boost its electricity-generating capacity by 50% in the next 10 years to keep pace with growing demand for power, according to the country’s energy minister, Edison Lobão. Electrobrás, the state-controlled power holding group, is building an integrated ...

Changyou.com is an online game developer and operator based in China that says it is committed to providing high-quality entertainment and virtual communities, and investors clearly want to play along. The company raised $128 million of real money last month ...

Global investors are stepping up the flow of capital to Africa’s frontier markets, according to a broker who takes orders from pension funds and insurers for $100 million or more. “All of the orders we get are to buy shares ...

South Africa’s Standard Bank, Africa’s largest lender by assets, has become the first international financial institution to join the IFC’s $5 billion global trade liquidity program. The program aims to extend loans to regional banks for on-lending to importers and ...

China’s foreign exchange reserves, the largest in the world, grew at the lowest rate in eight years in the first quarter as export markets cooled and foreign capital inflows slowed. The reserves increased by $7.7 billion to $1.95 trillion, representing ...

Just three months after the management of Satyam Computers, India’s fourth-largest software company, confessed to accounting fraud, the company was acquired by Tech Mahindra, another Indian software company. Tech Mahindra, which is partly owned by British Telecom, prevailed in the ...

The real liquidity crisis in the Middle East, as well as in parts of Asia and Africa, is the shortage of water, according to a report by Standard Chartered Bank. Consumption of fresh water must be strictly limited to the ...

The first meeting between US president Barack Obama and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, at the Group of 20 summit in London in early April, appeared to lay the foundation for an improvement in relations, which had plunged to fresh post-Cold ...

Citing Brazil’s prudent economic policies, Standard & Poor’s affirmed the country’s BBB- investment-grade rating with a stable outlook. In its rationale, S&P; said Brazil’s low investment-grade ratings are supported by the government’s ongoing commitment to prudent macroeconomic policies. S&P; expects ...

It’s not just companies that are caught in the fallout from the credit crunch; countries are suffering, too. In the latest assessment from risk analysis firm Coface, 47 countries—including the US, the UK, Japan and Germany—have seen their financial-strength rating ...

  Consumer prices in the United States fell unexpectedly in March, posting their first 12-month decline since 1955. It is clear that the recession is keeping a tight lid on prices and is providing cover for the Federal Reserve to ...

  The G-20 meeting in London in April was groundbreaking for the scale of the resources committed to the IMF and the unity of a diverse group of nations to combat global recession. But the legacy of the G-20 will ...

CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS HAVE QUIET BIG BANG     The “Big Bang” in the credit default swaps market on April 8 wasn’t exactly the shot heard round the world. While the CDS market underwent major infrastructure changes to standardize the ...

WORRIES ABOUT FUNDING DEFICITS COME TO FORE     Deficit financing has replaced interest rates as the driving force in the currency markets, analysts say. As short-term rates converge toward zero, their influence on currency values is dissipating and the ...

UNSPONSORED ADRS ATTRACT INVESTORS, BOOSTING VOLUME IN OTC SECURITIES Of the more than 1,000 unsponsored American depositary receipt programs created in the wake of last October’s rule change by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a handful are attracting significant ...

MORGAN STANLEY LEADS IN FIRST-QUARTER M&A; Morgan Stanley advised on $219 billion of mergers and acquisitions worldwide in the first quarter of 2009, beating out J.P. Morgan’s $203 billion total to take the lead in Thomson Reuters’ rankings of top ...

    Risk management is still not considered a core strategic function at some of the world’s biggest investment houses, according to a survey by research group SimCorp StrategyLab. Despite all the talk given to the importance of risk management ...

Mexico becomes the first country to tap IMF credit line;and risk management remains undervalued by money managers. Concerned about a weakening peso and possible 2010 fiscal gap, Mexico has turned to Washington for assistance for the first time since its ...

NORTH AMERICA “Brick is traditionally viewed as a commodity product. We believe we can market it as a fashion product” - Richard Manning - Hanson Brick     What’s in a name? The answer is everything if you’re Richard Manning.The ...