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Adventurous investment banks are starting to look beyond central Europe's emerged "golden triangle" - Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary - to opportunities in such countries as Bulgaria and the Slovak Republic. By Alex Mathias

Privatization and a new chairman of the stock exchange are spearheading the growth of the Egypt's capital markets. Rebecca Bream reports

Africa - for long an economic graveyard - is attracting more interest than ever before,spurred on by a new legal framework and a slowdown in Asian development. Project-finance lawyers are leading the way. By Christopher Stoakes

The consolidation process that has been reshaping the Italian banking system for the last three years reached a climax on March 21, when four of the five top banks in the country announced their intentions to merge following hectic negotiations.

The fall of German finance minister Oskar Lafontaine is bullish for German financial assets, but only in the short term. Euroland remains a slow-growth region. So, after a brief rally, I reckon the euro is set to weaken again against the US dollar, moving towards parity. The European Central Bank will now be much less reluctant to cut interest rates in order to fend off EU recession. There's no justification for maintaining real rates of 2% to 2.5% when real GDP growth in the euro zone is sub-par and slowing and inflation below 1% and falling. Short rates could go 50 to 75 basis points lower by the year-end. That will help German Bunds and equities, which have underperformed the EU average by over 10% so far this year. That performance gap will narrow quite quickly.

Bond Trading Poll: Emu shuffles the rankings

The big thrust of privatization in Spain is almost over and domestic and foreign investment banks must trim their strategies to cope. Most are confident that private and family-owned businesses seeking listings will provide lucrative business but competition will be fierce. Jules Stewart reports.

After so many months of nervous promises that the euro would herald a new era of bond issuance and credit awareness, bankers can hardly believe it. Volumes in the first quarter have been huge. Europe's investors are forsaking the safety of government bonds and placing big orders for corporate paper. In this new market everything is up for grabs. Market practices are ill-defined, pricing is uncertain and the league table results are wide open. Peter Lee reports.

What happens when you get Australian bankers on a beach for a barbecue? Euromoney invited five of Australia's top debt market professionals to Nielsen Park beach to find out. Steven Irvine put some prawns on the barbie.

The Philippines began to woo a new set of investors in February with the launch of a euro-denominated bond. The issue is not without its critics and it was made amid mixed reviews from bankers of the country's efforts to pull itself out of the Asian crisis. Gill Baker reports.

Bank privatization is finally underway in Romania. But the government needs to do much more to stave off financial crisis and reinvigorate a moribund economy

Chase: Back in the bulge-bracket