Emerging Markets

RUSSIA     Putin’s deft maneuvering will almost certainly see him retaining power In the second political bombshell in three weeks—following the surprise mid-September appointment of the obscure Victor Zubkov to replace prime minister Mikhail Fradkov—Russian president Vladimir Putin in ...

LATIN AMERICA     Lipsky: Sounds a warning. When the meltdown in US subprime mortgages triggered forecasts of a possible US recession, unleashing global credit and money market volatility, Latin America proved to be relatively insulated from the debacle. Though ...

SOUTH KOREA     Chung: Convicted but free to go. Chung Mong-koo, chairman of Hyundai Motor, is too important to South Korea’s economy to go to jail, despite being convicted of embezzlement and breach of trust, an appeals court ruled ...

COMPANY TO WATCH: LARSEN & TOUBRO/INDIA Engineering and construction conglomerate Larsen & Toubro, one of India’s largest listed companies, has evolved into a multinational corporation with offices in 30 countries, a growing order book in the Middle East, and manufacturing ...

CHINA     On the rise: China's rule changes have boosted Hong Kong's markets. China has further relaxed constraints on the investment industry, saying it will, for the first time, allow private citizens to invest individually in the Hong Kong ...

RUSSIA     Zubkov: Putin's surprise favorite to take over as prime minister. In a long-overdue cabinet shuffle, Russian prime minister Mikhail Fradkov submitted his resignation on September 12. Hours later president Vladimir Putin nominated the relatively unknown head of ...

To many, the World Bank is still the planet’s leading poverty-fighting institution...

JAMAICA     Golding: Ambitious economic plans. Newly sworn-in Jamaican prime minister Bruce Golding is seeking ways to kick-start the island’s sluggish economy and tackle mounting social pressures over escalating unemployment and crime rates (his own forecasts predict 1,300 murders ...

ANALYSIS / INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING Many Asian countries desperately need to upgrade their infrastructure while cash-rich private equity funds are scouring the region for long-term investments. Is this a match made in heaven?   Nag: We can only meet a small ...

THE WORLD BANK The World Bank’s struggle to redefine its role in a globalized economy has raised a fundamental question: Do we really need a World Bank?     No sooner had the dust settled after the controversial departure of ...

COUNTRY REPORT / BRAZIL     Buffeted by the shockwaves from the US subprime mortgage crisis, Brazil has to steer a steady course if it is to keep its economic development on track.     Buffeted by the shockwaves from ...

DR NEWS Russia’s national power utility OAO Unified Energy System has completed the spin-off of two power-generation units, OGK-5 and TGK-5, completing the first part of the government’s plan to break up the company. UES, the former power monopoly, also ...

COLOMBIA     Ecopetrol's Cartagena oil refinery. The Colombian energy sector entered a new investor-friendly era with the late-August IPO of Ecopetrol, the state-owned oil company. Ecopetrol is Colombia’s largest corporation, with income of around $18 billion in 2006. The ...

COUNTRY REPORT / PHILIPPINES     Schleimer: The Clean Air Act could be used to regulate greenhouse gases With the May general election safely behind it, the Philippine government hopes to use the next three years of relative political quietude ...

NEWS Foreign institutional buyers who purchased emerging market equities to realize value from long-term investments are not exiting their positions, despite increased volatility in global markets, according to a leading broker in the markets. There has been no increase in ...

INDIA     Organized retail is growing in India. India’s economic growth continues apace. For the April-June 2007 quarter, which is the first for the Indian fiscal year, GDP growth was 9.3%—up marginally from the previous quarter’s growth, which came ...

BRAZIL Some 50% of respondents to a Merrill Lynch emerging market investor survey in August said they were bullish on Brazil. Reaching a similar conclusion, rival Morgan Stanley predicts Brazilian markets will see further upside, despite recent US market turbulence, ...

CHINA       Feeling the squeeze: Chinas shoppers face swiftly growing prices. China’s central bank increased reserve requirements for the seventh time this year in September in a losing battle to control the growth in bank credit. Outstanding loans ...

China     Cost concerns: Rising food prices are fueling inflation. Investors anxious about overheating in the Chinese market had more cause for concern this month as China’s National Bureau of Statistics revealed that consumer prices rose by 5.6%, year ...

Global     Microfinancing, which provides small collateral-free loans of between $15 and $200 to help people in poverty set up their own businesses, is increasingly taking center stage in the battle to eradicate poverty. At the fifth World Chambers ...