GDP

The perception is the European Central Bank has been an outstanding laggard in its policy responses, that it lacks a clear mandate, and has too many people (22) sitting on its governing board to be aggressive.

Estonia should be a prime focus for emerging market investors for 2009, says Hadley Barrett, CEO of Oxford Sustainable Group.

Pre credit crunch, the Chinese economy had been expanding at a tremendous rate; China's GDP growth in the mid-teens combined with booming housing and stock markets clearly signalled a case of overheating.

Notwithstanding the recent pullback, equities have rebounded sharply from their lows in March, with economic data indicating a moderation in the pace of GDP decline, while sentiment towards risk assets has improved considerably.

While it is too early to be confident in the timing of an economic recovery in Japan, there are at least some signs that the situation is improving significantly.

A near 30% rally from the lows of early March to the peak on 1st June has been characterised by a fierce debate between investors over cyclicals versus defensives. We feel this misses the point of the rally entirely.

Capital Economics has predicted a 2% growth in world real GDP for 2010, rising to 3.5% in 2011.

Having spent the past six weeks trading in a tight range of 100 points around 4,400, the UK FTSE 100 has recently fallen back to its end of April levels.

Even a slip to fourth quartile has not persuaded Fidelity manager back towards highly leveraged cyclical stocks

The all-sector UK Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 51 in June up from 50.4 in May indicating the fastest rate of acceleration since March 2008.