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Conquering the markets of southeastern Europe is a big strategic goal for INA and MOL. INA was the dominant oil company in the former Yugoslavia and seeks to recapture this position. With Austria's OMV establishing a leading position in the Romanian market, conquering the former Yugoslav markets is more important to INA-MOL as regional consolidation in the oil industry continues.

Argentina has rebounded impressively from the 2002 crisis, but it still faces enormous risks and challenges. Sudip Roy spoke to Argentina's top economic policy-makers, including the economy minister, finance secretary and central bank president, about how they plan to take their country forward.

Argentina has rebounded strongly from the 2002 crisis, but some analysts are getting worried about inflation and the low level of investment. How would you reassure the international financial community?

The privatization of INA is governed by a special law passed in March 2002. Under this, other than the 2003 sale of 25% plus one to a strategic partner, which turned out to be MOL; and the forthcoming IPO for 15%; a further 7% of the company is reserved for war veterans and 7% is to go to present and former employees of the company. The war veterans' shares will be transferred to a fund while the employees will be sold their shares on favourable terms, probably at the same time that the IPO takes place.

Legislation to guarantee the position of foreign investors is being followed up with a proposed comprehensive capital markets law.

Several leading private Saudi companies are preparing to go public by launching IPOs following the successful flotation of dairy company Al Marai in July.

The Qatar Financial Centre opened for business on May 1 2005, and is now accepting licence applications from institutions. Its first resident – private bank Ansbacher – is set to open in early September 2005. Stuart Pearce, QFC's chief executive, says that an asset-management company and two banks are in the final stages of applying for licences. Dismissing concerns that the creation of yet another regional financial hub might be seen as overkill, the QFC says it is not seeking to compete directly with Bahrain and Dubai. "There is no reason why all three centres can't operate together," says Pearce. "They are different, complementary markets." The QFC has its sights set on banks involved in project financing and private banking, as well as commercial banking, private equity and investment banking, IPOs, and structured finance. "The feeling is that more wealth is staying in the Middle East, and that wealth needs a home, so there are all kinds of opportunities for regional and international banks to participate in the development of that wealth," says Pearce.

As restructuring rather than default becomes the norm for credit events in the emerging markets, it is time for those involved in the market to reappraise the effects of distressed situations on credit default swap prices, argue Manmohan Singh and Jochen Andritzky

To obtain this ranking the overall global country risk results were broken down by region. In addition Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index was combined with the overall ranking to create a score out of 105. This combined total was then scaled down to a score out of 100. The difference in ranking and overall score between the original ranking and that incorporating the CPI data has been incorporated in the results.

International markets reacted to the death of Saudi Arabia's monarch King Fahd by raising oil prices sharply to more than $61 a barrel.

Companies from Egypt to India and from Turkey to South Africa are hoping that the opening of the Dubai International Financial Exchange, set for the end of September, will open the doors to a vast well of unemployed petrodollars.

Country risk index: Most countries have better access to capital than ever before and sovereign credit ratings have been on the rise for the past three years. But an increasingly tense geopolitical environment has led to marked decline in this year's country risk ratings. Research and analysis by Paul Pedzinski.