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Enthusiasts for a Caribbean free trade zone see an opportunity to boost the region's economies. Sceptics recognize the value of this goal but point to many obstacles in the way of greater integration. Leticia Lozano reports.

Central bank and government profligacy in the west and Japan looks set to buoy up the gold price for some time to come.

Offshore bankers are coming under greater scrutiny and pressure to reform. The collapse of Italian dairy products group Parmalat and the EU's decision to target offshore centres and tighten corporate governance have helped to focus the attention of international authorities on this issue.

Iran's banking sector is dominated by five large state-owned commercial banks, accompanied by five smaller ones, which are required to conform to Islamic banking principles. As a rule, the public banks post weak profits, are undercapitalized and over-staffed, and are run by risk-averse managers. James McCormack at Fitch Ratings says the sector's weakness is state induced. "Sectoral credit allocations, deposit rates and lending rates are prescribed by the authorities based on economic development objectives as opposed to credit risk or monetary policy considerations," he says. The banks are thus "direct instruments of public policy". New licences

Iran is finding it difficult to cope with high levels of unemployment in a youthful population. Despite vast energy resources, accelerated reform is vital if the economy is to be transformed. Kate Luxford reports.

The US spends and the rest of the world lends. But the US is spending too much, and if Asian central banks don't keep lending, this year could bring unprecedented risk for bond investors. That was the message from Laura D'Andrea Tyson, former chairman of US president Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors, in her keynote address to the 10th Euromoney Bond Investors Congress in London on February 24.

India's bond and equity markets spurted into action last month as the government announced over $3 billion-worth of sales of shares in six companies. Indian companies and banks will also tap the market for another $2 billion, about half of which will be foreign currency debt. In addition, the Asian Development Bank closed a $110 million rupee bond, the first local currency bond by a multilateral bank.

At the end of February, Standard & Poor's revised its outlook on Volkswagen's single-A rating from stable to negative, owing to the car company's lower than expected 2003 earnings. VW's operating profits were down 48% to e2.5 billion in 2003, according to its headline numbers published last month. S&P said the sales performance of its new Golf, retaining its profitability in Europe and its ability to carry out planned annual cost cutting of e1 billion were the company's key challenges in 2004.

Source: www.breakingviews.comis Europe's leading financial commentary service Sanofi's attempted e48 billion takeover of Aventis is just the latest in a string of merger moves in the drugs sector over the past decade. To get an idea of the scale of the activity, consider that the market share of the top 10 companies has risen from 25% in 1988 to around 50% today. And there is much further to go, as pill-making is still a highly fragmented activity compared with other sectors of the economy.

It is just past midnight at The Morning Night Bar a few doors down from Bangkok's notorious Nana Entertainment Plaza and the party is in full swing. Loud rock music belts from speakers, clouds of cigarette smoke hug the pool tables and groups of inebriated western men clutch younger-looking Thai consorts as the Singha beer flows and the good times roll.

The Dutch B2B group pulls off a large restructuring to survive a liquidity crunch amid heavy trading of its debt by US hedge funds.