The bank's transition report revises down 2009 economic forecasts.

World Bank director hopes "it will be different this time".

A "weak, jobless recovery" remains a danger, says World Bank.

No time for complacency, warns Zoellick at annual meetings.

Any upturns will be fragile, claims new report.

Despite Libya’s growing internationalisation as being a reasonably stable, tolerate and welcoming environment for investment, a reputation that is bolstered by a variety of customs duties and tax breaks for large projects, some UK investors are not short of criticism about the country’s lack of transparency and at times ambiguous and conflicting announcements from Libya’s key decision and policy makers. These issues, among others, were at times hotly debated at the Middle East Association’s Libya conference held in London on July 23.

Abu Dhabi Investment House (ADIH), in partnership with Al Hilal Bank, announced the successful closing of its shariah-compliant US$100mn Al Wataniya Fund with the objective to finance a development within Abu Dhabi's commercial sector.

BTA Bank has appointed Lovells to advise the bank on asset recovery. BTA was nationalised in February and at the end of June it announced that its losses under loans issued by former bank’s managers to its affiliates, including financing foreign projects, amounted to KZT1.413bn (US$9.4mn) in 2008.

Standard Chartered announced its full acquisition of the remaining shareholding in First Africa Group, a leading pan-African M&A advisory firm.

European financing for a hydroelectric plant in Turkey was suspended on July 7 after Turkey failed to offer environmental protections in the area around the Tigris River where antiques from the Middle Ages will be flooded by the dam.

On June 24, Sinopec, a Chinese international petroleum exploration and production company, will take over Addax Petroleum, a Swiss-based international oil and gas explorer with a strategic focus on West Africa and the Middle East, in a US$7.2bn deal.

On June 24, as part of the official visit by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to Nigeria, Gazprom and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation signed an agreement on setting up a joint venture on a parity basis.