Contrary to Dubai, a state with not much oil and thus aspiring to diversify away into financial services and tourism, Abu Dhabi controls approximately 8% of the world’s oil and one of the largest Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF).

It remains to be seen how the RBA will go about doing that using all tools at their disposal. They deserve to be mentioned as one of the most credible central banks, though, as seen by them being so far effective in guiding long-term interest rates, thus reflecting the market’s trust in them.

There are shifts in the concentration of millionaire population. While US, Japan and Germany still account for 54% of HNWIs in the world, China has now moved into 4th position surpassing UK. Similarly Brazil has now moved ahead of Australia and Spain in the 10th position.
The study also forecasts that the HNWI wealth will recover to $48.5 Trillion by 2013 and the Asia-Pacific will overtake North America as the largest region for HNWI financial wealth.

The State Government's latest round of unimproved land valuations has revealed the Gold Coast was hardest hit by global financial crisis, with the value of units on the glitter strip dropping 17 per cent since October 2007.

‘‘That was a surprise, especially given the banks were all saying it would rise and they should have known,’’ Nomura Australia chief economists Stephen Roberts said. ‘‘It’s tends to detract from an immediate interest rate rise, so anyone talking about a back-to-back interest rate rise, it may cool that a bit.

“We’re not asking for a bailout, we’re not asking for financial help from anyone,” Papandreou told reporters. “What we are doing is first of all revamping our own economy. We are taking measures to put our economy on the right path.”