Brazil ranked 121st among 175 countries in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” survey. In Latin America, Brazil ranked before Suriname in 122nd place, Ecuador in 123rd, Bolivia in 131st, Guiana in 136th, Haiti in 139th and Venezuela in 164th. The other Latin American countries, namely Chile, Mexico and Uruguay, ranked 28th, 43rd and 64th, respectively. The leader in the ranking is Singapore, followed by New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Australia, Norway and Ireland.
According to the Bank of Russia, Troika Dialog and Ernst and Young, over 40 Russian companies are expected to hold IPOs in 2006 to 2007. Some 15 companies held IPOs in 2004 to 2005, he added. Industries set to join the Russian market in 2006 to 2007 include IT, coal, pharmaceutical, banking and energy sectors. Some 20 to 30 companies from Tatarstan may enter the market in the next two or three years. They are companies worth over $1 billion in telecommunications, oil, banking, agriculture and machine manufacture.
Bank Indonesia plans to reduce its benchmark interest rate to about 10% by the end of the year, deputy governor Aslim Tadjuddin said. Last week Bank Indonesia announced a 50 basis point cut in its benchmark interest rate to 11.25%. Tadjuddin also said the central bank expects inflation to moderate to around 7%.
Lebanon’s bank deposits declined by 3.6% during July to reach $58.5 billion. The decline was due to the Israeli war. Lebanese banks’ balance sheets saw a 2.3% decline during the month, falling by $1.8 billion in total. Lebanon’s banking sector grew by 10% during 2005. A large part of the government's debt has been funded by Lebanese banks, and economists warn that Lebanon 's GDP will contract sharply this year.