Oil prices have helped cushion the effects of slack global growth for many energy exporters. Asian and European growth is accelerating but there are wide regional variations and the World Bank warns that the world economy may well slide into recession.

Foreign exchange

John R Taylor Jr is the CEO and founder of FXConcepts, a global investment management and research firm specializing in currency risk (mail@fx-concepts.com). Uncontrollable major disruptions in financial markets are a distant memory. That's about to change.

Jochen Friedrich arrived at DZ Bank last year to become head of fixed income. This bank, along with WGZ Bank, is one of the two central institutions linking Germany's mutual banking network. Consolidation is under way among the cooperatives as well as the Landesbanken. DZ itself is the product of a difficult merger between DG Bank and GZ Bank, and expects the total number of German cooperative banks to fall from about 1,600 today to roughly 800 by 2008.

With so many corporates under pressure to raise cash, and understandably loath to sell off holdings at depressed prices in a weak market, the hunt for higher valuations is driving a wave of complex structured equity deals.

By 2005 Germany's Landesbanken will lose their state support. Then, say the private commercial banks, the country's banking system will benefit from a level playing field. But none of the banks will be able to turn a profit if they don't make radical changes.

Germany's banking elite struggles to keep a secret, it seems. Confidential talks between executives from the country's largest banks and government officials wound up being anything but.

CEO, Epic Investment Consulting

Few people would want Michael Conolly's job. As the chief financial officer of Portugal's state-owned carrier TAP, he faces all the problems his airline peers are struggling with, plus a few that are specific to his own company.

In volatile equity markets, more deals than ever are being done with no documentation and little if any due diligence. Are banks taking too many risks?

Privatization looked to be the answer to Portugal's widening budget deficit but poor market conditions have stymied it. The government, though, has cut costs and boosted revenues, with favourable capital market effects.

Argentina is coming out of crisis, but few investors have noticed. Those that have can do little to profit from their knowledge. But there's a long way to go and the aspirations of the 1990s are unlikely to be fulfilled.

Impending full liberalization of Malaysia's banking system is encouraging local players to grow their investment banking business, with RHB Sakura and CIMB taking the lead.

Not so long ago, a large stake in Deutsche Telekom would have been a nice asset for any company to have on the balance sheet. When telecom companies were all the rage, such holdings could be sold for a healthy profit. By last year, however, such a block of shares was far more of a millstone than a jewel.

President Arroyo took office in the Philippines with ambitious plans to increase revenues, curb corruption and cut the state deficit. But after two years in office little has been achieved on these fronts. Now pessimistic country analysts are making worrying comparisons between Asia's busiest sovereign borrower and Argentina.

If you can make it here, so the song goes, you can make it anywhere. But New York hasn't been that accommodating to Duncan Goldie-Morrison. The towering Scot, head of global markets for Banc of America Securities, only moved there from Chicago last year.