The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reinvented itself as a new, user-friendly, more politically sensitive organisation.

Fixing its banks and power shortages would go a long way towards setting Nigeria on a sustainable growth path. The government has recently taken two steps in the right direction.

Banks failed in the recent crisis because they lent money to the wrong people - sometimes done by way of complicated structures but bad credits all the same - and because they were undercapitalised.

To the average member of the US Congress, the world is a simple place - if China can be pushed to let the renminbi float free or at least be revalued, the US trade deficit with China will disappear and US manufacturing jobs will magically reappear.

India's banking sector has long been considered a laggard in relation to the country's hugely successful economy, and this year's Top 1000 Banks ranking shines a new and unflattering light on the true extent of India's malaise.

Signs of a general recovery in banking include the facts incurring losses are not recording them on the same scale as last year and that even the lowest Bank for International Settlement (BIS) capital ratios are higher than in 2009. The worst non-performing loan (NPL) percentages, on the other hand, are higher, suggesting that there is more pain to come.