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

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

As Duma and presidential elections loom, the two main Kremlin political factions are vying for control of Russia's development.

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

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

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.

The emerging-market bond bubble may be close to bursting as the US economy shows signs of picking up and bondholders digest a recent rise in yields. It means investors will have to dig harder for opportunities in the CEE region.

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.

As the world biggest buyer of emerging-market debt, Pimco's Mohamed El-Erian feels free to lean on banks - cajoling them into not selling new issues to hedge funds, refusing to be bumped into upsized deals and undermining issues that look set to damage his fund's investments.

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.

Kazakhstan

Bond investors finally appear to be getting the message that exposure to commodities can be a useful hedge in a portfolio. And if they have invested in the right commodities, they could find themselves in an excellent position to profit from any forthcoming US interest rate rise.

Fixed-asset investment in China is growing faster than demand, creating overcapacity that may never be drained no matter how fast exports grow. A new burden of potential non-performing loans could be accreting as a result.

The Kremlin is in two minds about Gazprom. It's a monolithic tool of Russian geopolitics but there are also plans to make it part of a more diversified, liberalized energy industry.

Bangladesh

When Banco Comercial Português paid just over $3 million to buy a bankrupt bank from the Turkish government two years ago, it was snapping up probably its biggest bargain ever without knowing it.

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

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.

Oman

If Kazakhstan's success in making the transition from Soviet planned economy to free market is anything to go by, it has a better chance than many oil-rich economies of successfully harnessing its wealth.

When Allianz announced its first-half results in August, it fuelled both sides of the argument about Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein's future.

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.

Latin America's poor economic performance in the past decade has overturned analysts' judgements that getting rid of the region's dictatorships and introducing free-market reforms would clear the path to sustainable economic growth.

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.

It has been a gloomy year so far for the Philippines, a nation mired in corruption whose administration recently faced a mutiny by disaffected soldiers. But a recent court ruling against one of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos's closest allies may offer a glimmer of hope that this country can save itself after all.

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.

There's not a lot new about the fact that German corporates need to think about reassessing their funding mix, but a new survey by Siemens Financial Services suggests that their best ideas about how to go about this are not good enough.

The pan-European asset management industry spends more than $9 billion every year managing and distributing product information, according to research by independent consulting firm SPB Marketing. Software company Activiti has created a product that it believes can help large fund managers to cut costs by up to $5 million by increasing the efficiency of the flow of information between firms and consultants and within the asset management firm itself.

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.

Raghuram Rajan, the new IMF chief economist, talks to Euromoney's Julian Evans about controlling special interests, IMF reform, and the difficulties of instituting market democracy in Iraq.