Business after the Iraqi War

Written by Carlos T. Fernandez


Continued from page 1

The United States' Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is also not in good shape. It has trickled down to an annual GDP growth that is expected to reach only 3.1% and both France and Germany have recently downgraded their annual GDP growth forecasts to 2.4% and 2.0% respectively. Moreover,repparttar "uncertainty factor" as I like to call it, most likely will keep businesses and consumers cutting back on expenditures forrepparttar 112394 remainder of 2003.

Fortunately, there are some signs thatrepparttar 112395 economy is beginning to recover. A report that was recently released byrepparttar 112396 U.S. Department of Commerce showed a rise of over 2% in retail sales forrepparttar 112397 month of March and a slight rebound in consumer confidence. Also,repparttar 112398 national unemployment rate, which was released byrepparttar 112399 Bureau of Labor Statistics, remained unchanged at 5.8% for March 2003. Whilerepparttar 112400 majority consensus is thatrepparttar 112401 economy will eventually recover, it is apparent that this will definitely take more time and effort than what most people had originally predicted.

Carlos T. Fernandez is the business columnist for Dominican Times Magazine, a publication that focuses on the hispanic culture and the issues affecting its communities. He is also the publisher of a popular financial planning and management website entitled Building Wealth (http://buildingwealth.blogspot.com).


Financial tools that investors should apply to investment decisions

Written by Andy George


Continued from page 1

Though there are many strategies that investors should follow, I tend to follow a strategy where I would buy investment companies if they were at a discount to their NAV of at least 20%. I tend to find thatrepparttar downside is restricted if investors follow such a policy. Ifrepparttar 112393 market were in a bear market phase (i.e. falling market), I would widenrepparttar 112394 discount to say 30%. If in a bull market thenrepparttar 112395 discount could be narrowed to say 15%.

EARNINGS PER SHARE (EPS): Another tool that should be used by investors is to look atrepparttar 112396 track record ofrepparttar 112397 company concerned. By this I meanrepparttar 112398 growth (or lack of it) in Earnings per share. A good management team should be able to register a solid annual increase in EPS of say 15% per annum. It should be able to do this on a consistent basis.

The problem facing Cypriot investors is that there are many companies that have listed onrepparttar 112399 Cyprus Stock Exchange that have registered massive jumps in their earnings in 1999-2000. Prior to this they were producing low earnings. What should investors do in such cases? In my opinion investors should look atrepparttar 112400 Prospective EPS andrepparttar 112401 anticipated growth overrepparttar 112402 next few years.

There are also a number of non-financial factors that need to be considered before making investment decisions. These includerepparttar 112403 track record ofrepparttar 112404 management team,repparttar 112405 prospects ofrepparttar 112406 Company and its industry,repparttar 112407 state ofrepparttar 112408 economy etc. Some of these factors have already been mentioned in some of my past articles.

CONCLUSION: In my article I have deliberately tried not to overload investors with too much information. This I believe isrepparttar 112409 duty of financial experts to analyse. However I do believe that investors need to knowrepparttar 112410 basics such as P/E Ratios, Net Asset Values etc before making investment decisions. I believe it is time that Cypriot investors should do a lit a bit of research before making investment decisions.

Disclaimer: No responsibility for loss can be accepted to any person acting or refraining from acting as a result of material in this article.

Andy George is an accountant with years’ experience as a lecturer. Andy was financial correspondent for eight years at the Cyprus Financial Mirror where he wrote articles on business & accounting related issues to a non-technical audience.

He is the author of eBooks: How to write and Publish Your Own With a Shoestring Budget http://www.budgetebook.com New! Easy Way to Make Auto-Pilot Income http://www.budgetebook.com/cbmall




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