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Only invest in Russia, say old hands, if you can afford to - and can't afford not to. Companies building factories and brands in Russia face formidable difficulties. Agreements thrashed out with the federal authorities in Moscow are overturned by local officials. Taxes, operating licences and regulations are all subject to change at a moment's notice

Finding a straightforward structure for turning UK commercial property into tradable securities has long been a desire of the market. One recent deal points the way. By Christopher Stoakes.

Next year, when the sun-loving Germans travel to the Italian Riviera they'll still have to change their Deutschmarks into lire - or will they? Although the lira will be the only legal tender in Italy for a further three years some economists predict that Italian shopkeepers will soon prefer to be paid in Deutschmarks and bank those, even though the lira and the Deutschmark will be components of the same mighty euro.

Touted as the world's first Federal Reserve Board-approved internet bank, Security First Network Bank (SFNB) was one of 1996's hottest internet IPOs. The $48.8 million deal, sole-managed by Friedman Billings Ramsey, a Virginia-based investment-banking boutique, was priced at $20 a share. Some early investors may have done well, as the share price more than doubled to $45 soon after launch. But the virtual bank, which had garnered only about $55 million in deposits by the end of 1997, was just a little too far ahead of its time. The Atlanta-based company focused on developing its widely acclaimed software, and didn't have anything left over to build the bank. Losses for 1996 and 1997 totalled $50 million, $3 million more than SFNB had raised during the public offering. The stock sank into the single digits last year.

Issuers: Pub chains

Strapped for the cash to build international-style hotels, the Ukraine government is sprucing up its Soviet-era buildings and housing EBRD delegates on boats instead. But the real difficulty will be creating a service culture in time for the conference. Suzanne Miller reports

Peregrine's last days, by Andre Lee

Japan is stuck in a time warp. Little has changed, and what has is for the worse. The economy is in dire straits. Half-hearted reform erodes the real incomes of households and corporations without the stimulus of real supply-side deregulation. Household savings rates are already historically low. Export demand is waning. The economy will be down this year and next.

Last National Bank of Boot Hill,

Unless you are a strategic investor, it has never been easy to buy into a big Kazakh company. But that could soon change. The government plans to float its stakes in the cream of the country's industry. The success of this blue-chip privatization will hinge on investor sentiment towards emerging markets. So far, Kazakhstan has weathered the storm from Asia better than other countries in the former Soviet Union. Gavin Gray reports

Some feared the Luxor massacre would knock Egypt's economy off course, but it is proving resilient. Fiscal discipline, low inflation and privatization have made Egypt a regional success story. Jules Stewart reports on an economy finding its feet

Hungary's central bank president took the view that the government had to invest heavily in putting the banking system in good shape as a prelude to a root-and-branch privatization that did not obstruct foreign participation. As Nigel Dudley reports, foreign strategic investors are already bringing greater efficiency