Word: regionals
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...still doubt StanChart can repeat 2008's performance this year. Brokerage CLSA predicts pretax profit growth will slow to 4% in 2009. Reflecting the heightened risk, Standard & Poor's in late April revised its outlook for the bank to negative. "The biggest single worry is the economies in the region," says Nick Hill, bank credit analyst at Standard & Poor's in London. "We think they've taken measures to pull in their horns, but it is a bit of a stretch to say they're immune from the environment." StanChart executives insist that their carefully managed loan portfolio can withstand...
...stepping up their offensive against the nation's Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, and his estimated 20,000 fighters. The "full-fledged" escalation planned in South Waziristan, a Mehsud stronghold, reflects the government's heightened resolve to confront Pakistan's growing insurgency. But analysts warn that assaults in the mountainous region will be difficult to carry out and may prompt bloody reprisals elsewhere...
...battle for the shrinking pool of tourists, naturally, is good news for anyone touring. Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam have cut visa fees and worked with airlines, hotels and tourist sites to slash prices. Caribbean operators say deep price cuts have been essential to keeping the region in people's minds during the turmoil. Some Caribbean resorts have cut prices in half. "We're hoping that these deals will never have to see the light of day again," says Hugh Riley, secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, the body representing the travel interests of 32 nations in the region...
...Zelaya. Chávez himself led an aborted military coup in 1992, before he was elected Venezuela's President in 1998. But Obama needs to remember how sorely the memory of a failed 2002 coup attempt against Chávez still lingers in Latin America - and how convinced the region remains (not without reason) that the Bush Administration backed it. As a result, Obama may find that while he'd like to be the voice of dialogue, Latin leaders of all political stripes are likely to exhort him to come down hard on what Zelaya called the "kidnapping...
What underlies this crisis, however, is a sort of Cold War reprise vexing the start of Latin America's 21st century. The Chávez-led, anti-U.S. group came to power because Washington-backed capitalist reforms so often simply widened the region's epic gap between rich and poor. But the bloc's socialist ideology, which critics say is a throwback to the authoritarian leftism of a bygone era, has élites across Latin America spooked in ways their parents and grandparents were when Fidel Castro still had influence in the hemisphere...