Stories for November 4th 2008

Tuesday, November 4th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Fitch predicts steepest GDP decline in leading countries

In its latest Global Economic Outlook, Fitch Ratings predicts that the world's major advanced economies - US, UK, Euro Zone and Japan - will experience in 2009 the steepest decline in GDP since World War II. In aggregate GDP growth in these countries is expected to be (minus) -0.8% in 2009, compared to an estimated 1.1% for 2008. Tighter credit conditions, consumer retrenchment and falling corporate investment are expected to combine to deliver an unusually synchronised downturn across the advanced economies.
Tuesday, November 4th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
FT gives high marks to Latinamerica's banking system

Latinamerica's financial system has passed the Financial Times test. In an article under the headline of “Latinamerica sidesteps the worst of crisis”, FT correspondents in Sao Paulo and Mexico City elaborate on the region's banking industry and how “by accident and design” in spite of a long history of turbulence, it is weathering the global crisis.

Maybe because of the relatively small size of the system, but definitively because regulations and close monitoring have helped Latinamerican banks stay away “from all those toxic products” that damaged US banks.

Fitch predicts steepest GDP decline in leading countries