Source: www.breakingviews.com is Europe's leading financial commentary service

Bangladesh

The bulk of corporate earnings results for the second quarter of 2003 from S&P500 companies are now in and equity bulls are claiming that they justify the sharp equity rally since mid-March. I'm not convinced. More companies beat analysts' expectations, but then estimates had been revised down sharply.

Russia's richest businessmen have set themselves a new objective - the acquisition of foreign enterprises for pleasure, profit and expertise.

After falling out with the US over access to Iraq, Turkey is regaining favour with the west as its economy revives. Its long-term goal is EU membership, but how far away does that target remain?

"When we launched our Vice Fund, one SRI [socially responsible investing] group said they would pray for us," says Dan Ahrens, co-manager of Mutuals.com's Vice Fund.

Advisers: UBS (Cordiant); Goldman Sachs (WPP)

Source: www.breakingviews.com is Europe's leading financial commentary service

Bankers are grateful for the bouyancy of the debt capital markets. But they are not letting the rush of business impede their efforts to broaden the range of products they offer clients and cut out unfruitful relationship banking.

A cabinet reshuffle should revive Saudi Arabia's economic reforms, with a new capital market law pending.

Emerging markets offer US funds significantly safer investment opportunities than some G7 countries, according to new research from risk analysis firm RiskMetrics.

Ghana has stolen a march on its rivals in the world of peacekeeping operations. The ministry of defence drew down in August the first instalment of a $55 million loan from Barclays that will enable it to upgrade its military equipment and secure higher-margin reimbursement from the UN for a stint in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al-Assaf, Saudi Arabia's minister of finance and national economy since 1996, has steered the economy through a difficult period. He has played a leading role in the modernization, diversification and liberalization of the Saudi economy and managed its finances prudently in a period in which oil prices have swung between $10 and $30 a barrel. Al-Assaf, a 54-year old economist who has served as the country's executive director at the World Bank for six years and as vice-governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (Sama) and wins Euromoney's finance minister of the year award for 2003, spoke to Nigel Dudley in his office in Riyadh.

A new capital markets law, continued privatization and an eventual opening up to foreign investors should boost Saudi Arabia's equity market.

After two years' frantic activity and expenditure banks are still struggling to understand, let alone control, terrorist financing. Governments have failed to support the financial community with resources, skills and systems. The implications for global security are alarming.

Five years after Russia defaulted on its sovereign debt, burning foreign investors, the government is poised to return to international capital markets next year with $2.76 billion of Eurobond issues. Thanks to the country's revival, investors are salivating at the prospect of fresh Russian paper.

With inflation falling in Brazil, the days when banks could grow fat on government paper are almost over. New business lines, consolidation and retrenchment are high on the agenda and there are persistent rumours that Citibank will beef up its presence in Latin America's biggest economy.

Banking talent is always newsworthy, especially when it is unearthed in a dimly lit bar and involves Elvis renditions. The bar, in London's Canary Wharf, is a haunt of Gareth Jones, a salesman at BNY Securities. The event was the inaugural public gig of The Dealers.

Debt capital markets is one area of European banking that is hiring rather than firing. But most of the new jobs are at banks still building a presence, and it is only skilled, experienced staff that they are after at modest cost.

Saudi Arabia is making progress in restructuring its economy, but keeping up to speed a move away from dependence on oil itself rests on high oil prices and low interest rates.

A growing number of companies are realizing that there is a large pool of cash in the Islamic world that they may be able to tap into to diversify their funding sources and lower their financing costs. However, they must be willing to embrace Shariah-compliant structures.

Politicians in the US and Japan are blaming the low value of the Chinese renminbi for all manner of economic ills in their countries and pressing for its revaluation upwards. Yet many of their own manufacturers are benefiting greatly from the low manufacturing costs in China. Speculators will win if the renminbi rises.

In the July issue of Euromoney, an editing error led us to state incorrectly that Alfa Bank is a subsidiary of Austrian firm RZB. It is not. We would like to make it clear that Alfa Bank is Russian-owned and not a subsidiary of any foreign firm.

The start of the political season in Russia has capped the wild upswing in the country's equity market but not brought share prices crashing to the ground. Predictions of quiet growth based on a growing equity culture still seem apt.

There can be a hefty difference between perception and reality on debt markets pay these days. One headhunter recalls: "A senior banker called me when I was on a ski lift at Christmas. He said he was going to get only $1 million in the current bonus cycle. He wanted to know whether he had been hard done by as he thought he was worth $2 million. I got a researcher to check what someone in his position and with his job title would usually earn right now. I called him back and said 'you're worth $600,000, so you're doing well'."

Although logistics suggest that regional companies should play a major part in reconstructing Iraq, hopes of big gains have had to be scaled down. In some areas, such as telecoms, the odds look to have been stacked against Arab firms.

The transport system now rivals the weather as a topic of conversation among disgruntled Britons. So there was considerable interest in investor appetite when National Air Traffic Services (Nats), which runs air traffic control services in UK airspace, followed another transport-sector debutant, Network Rail, which maintains the UK rail infrastructure, to the bond markets this summer.

Emerging markets are back. That's the conclusion of the latest quarterly debt survey by Emta, formerly the Emerging Markets Traders Association. In the second quarter of 2003, total emerging-market debt trading passed $1 trillion for the first time in five years.

Significant new oil finds and the completion of several large liquefied natural gas projects will shortly give Egypt's hard-currency earnings a much needed boost. However, continued fiscal and regulatory reform is needed if Cairo is to succeed in creating sustainable and broadly based economic growth.