The great Africa opportunity awaits and it could involve higher growth in output and profits than the world has ever seen before.

With or without a radical change of approach by the new president, France’s markets are surprisingly open to overseas companies.Geraldine Lambe reports.

Following the French elections, the markets are returning to normal, with plenty of activity predicted, especially in state-involved sectors. Geraldine Lambe reports on how the pace is picking up.

Karina Robinson talks to Iran’s central bank governor Ebrahim Sheibany, about inflation, privatisation and the UN’s freezing of Iranian assets.

The big Chinese banks have burst into the top echelons of global banking and look set to stay. This year’s Top 1000 shows there are now two banks, ICBC and Bank of China, in the Top 10 world banks in seventh and ninth place, with China Construction Bank close behind in 14th place.

As Portugal takes over the EU presidency, the country’s president, Professor Aníbal Cavaco Silva, stresses the need, among other things, for Europe to assert itself as an effective and influential global performer.

It is high time France was given some credit for operating an economy that is more open than most to foreign companies.

The US and IMF’s targeting of China’s currency has as much to do with playing to the political gallery as it does with economics.

The EU’s Transparency Directive is not functioning properly because most states have failed to implement it, and where it is in force it has been gold-plated to varying degrees.

Given the economy’s good health, Brazil’s central bank governor Henrique Meirelles can afford to muse on soya and George Bush. Interview by Karina Robinson.