Search results for

Finance Minister and Central Banker of the Year: The regional winners

The quest for a new El Dorado

Deals of the Year

Oriental Hotel,

Much more private-sector activity from Brazil is expected on international capital markets as the privatization programme progresses. Unsecured bond issuance is only part of this expansion. And as hyperinflation becomes a distant memory, the domestic capital market is also growing rapidly. Michael Marray reports.

series of bankruptcies is battering corporate Korea and putting serious strain on the country's banking sector. But companies and lenders alike are reluctant to embrace radical strategies. The result is a lot of posturing but little in the way of structural solutions. The worst may be yet to come, reports Jack Lowenstein.

France's banks are stifled by bureaucratic management, crippled by the over-expansion they undertook in the 1980s and hampered by regulatory obstacles to restructuring. What better time for an outsider with deep pockets to buy into one of the largest banking markets. By John McGrath.

The new South African government's enthusiasm for the free market has surprised some sceptics. But does it have the right plan to tackle the country's problems of entrenched unemployment, fitful economic growth and a heavy dependence on gold exports - not to mention rampant crime? Bruce Cameron reports.

After two successful privatizations this summer, foreign investors have become highly enthusiastic about Polish stocks. And there's more to come: some 80 companies have applied to the SEC to issue shares before the end of the year, and 60 of these would be IPOs. Antony Currie reports.

The New Zealand economy's been riding a switchback. Stability would offer a welcome breather, as Albert Smith explains.

Best Asian Finance Minister: Chidambaram, India

Euromoney received replies from 32 economists at leading financial and economic institutions. They gave each country's economic performance for 1997 and 1998 a score out of 100, after making comparisons between countries and years. The world's fastest-growing, best-performing economy in an ideal year would score 100; the worst economy in a disastrous year would score zero. Respondents were asked consider sustained economic growth, monetary stability, current-account/budget deficit or surplus, unemployment and structural imbalances. Economists also gave their forecasts for real GNP growth for calendar years 1997 and 1998. The scores in the ranking are the average of those forecasts. The ranking represents an average of economic performance scores for 1997 and 1998. Countries which received one or no votes were excluded.