Recovery Positions
The Panel
James Adam
Head of business development for EMEA, ICAP
Daniel Corrigan
Director of financial markets, ING
Konstantin Ivanov
Director of local currencies trading, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Mikhail Palei
Global and rates trader, VTB Capital
Nick Rustad
Head of Russian trading, JP Morgan
Axel Van Nederveen
Treasurer, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Issued covered include:
• Traders in emerging markets have to keep an eye on the political environment as well as the economic environment. Does the current stable Dmitry Medvedev-Vladimir Putin power base hold any potential risks for the financial market?
• The Russian economy is expected to continue its growth in 2010. What is your forecast for gross domestic product (GDP)? How insulated will Russia be from some of the difficult decisions facing Western governments?
• How dangerous does the panel consider the Russian economic policy to be? Will banks be able to function without reform and consolidation? How will small firms concentrating on domestic markets perform? Is there a risk of a Japanese ‘lost decade' for Russia? Will the service sector develop or will the economy depend on exports from large state entities?
• How should investors view the obligations of the state-owned and quasi-state owned companies in light of events in Dubai and elsewhere?
• What is the sensible and sustainable maturity profile for the government debt to follow?
• How much significance does the panel place on Medvedev's call to diversify the economy away from energy? Will the investment in the non-energy sectors be successful? Does this diversification have implications for the financial market?
• Are state asset sales a realistic way to overhaul the infrastructure and to finance the budget deficit? How will golden shares retained by the government be viewed by investors and will new investors be protected as a result of continued competition by new start-up private ventures?