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Economists now predict an upturn in the world economy. Country scores in Euromoney's country risk ranking, based on our poll of economists and political analysts, plus market data and World Bank debt figures, have jumped by an average of 2.75 percentage points. Research and commentary by Charles Piggott.

This is the big one, it rocks the country, it rocks the Beltway, it rocks the bond market and it sure as fate rocks all those lardass VPs in head office, so on no account let word of it leak out on those canasta afternoons of yours, consider it classified Shred Before Reading.

French banks have given up their global ambitions with mere survival occupying their minds. The task of slimming down and restructuring is made more difficult by French aversions to job losses and hostile takeovers. But, like it or not, brash Anglo-American ideas about markets and management are being taken on board, reports Jonathan Ford.

The beacon of European integration can never be turned off by a nation with Germany's history, as Herr Kohl has made clear in recent comments. But there is a dimmer switch - delaying the start of European economic and monetary union (Emu).

A special report prepared by SBC Warburg, a division of Swiss Bank Corporation.

The structure of Spanish legislation is comparable to that of leading worldwide economies. This is partly due to the demands of the European Union of which Spain is a member, but also due to the desire of the Spanish government to internationalize its financial markets. Liberalization in Spain in the last 10 years has been widespread and rapid.

A special report prepared by Santander Investment.

"You want to make sure your leads are awake, sweating at night, and we knew they would be." This was how Mark Cutis, treasurer of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) justified picking a decidedly odd couple of banks to launch its benchmark foray into five-year Deutschmarks, its first benchmark for two years. By Steve Irvine.

The German capital markets are changing. Monetary union in Europe by 1999 is fading, money-market rates have fallen and internationalization is the buzzword. The bond market has been motoring - until the recent downturn. Does this signal a change in longer-term investor sentiment? Philip Moore reports.

Jean-Claude Komarovsky masterminds a bid for the widest mandate ever contemplated in the history of the Universe, and visits a squirrel farm near Woking.

A special report prepared by Bank J.Vontobel & Co. Ltd.

There's a good chance the next UK government will be left-of-centre Labour, whose previous terms of office have usually ended in inflation and currency crisis. Soft-spoken Labour politicians can't allay fears - among foreign investors and City practitioners - that a change of government will trigger a market correction and more controls on the financial sector. The reason for the fears: new-look Labour's overtures to private capital are vague and non-committal. Even Labour supporters are saying it's time to put flesh on the bones. By David Shirreff