Nicholas Watson in Prague
Wed, 10th Mar -- Reports in March that 10 bidders are interested in buying a 21% stake in Turkish lender Garanti Bank confirms the huge interest that foreign investors have in the country's banking industry. And a look at the sector's latest financial results shows just why.

Matthew Day in Warsaw
Wed, 10th Mar -- Large parts of CEE appear to be sitting on one of the world's largest deposits of shale gas, and this has got the energy world excited. To quote one executive attending the "III CE Gas Summit 2010" in Warsaw in February: "It is a bit like discovering there's life on Mars."

Samantha Shields in Tbilisi
Tue, 9th Mar -- Tbilisi's mayor, Gigi Ugulava, is hoping a scheme to provide loans for property development will help preserve the city's elegant yet crumbling historic centre and breathe life into a local economy whose construction sector was badly hit by the global economic crisis.

Clare Nuttall in Almaty
Tue, 9th Mar -- As one of only two European countries to actually grow in 2009, Albania's government regards now as a good time to issue its first-ever international bond. To maintain that strong growth, though, analysts warn Tirana needs to step up the reform process.

Guy Norton in London
Mon, 8th Mar -- Veteran Russian fund management group Pharos Financial and Dubai-based agribusiness specialist Miro Asset Management have teamed up to launch the Pharos Miro Agriculture Fund to tap into the evolving agricultural investment theme.

Clare Nuttall in Almaty
Mon, 8th Mar -- The planned construction of a new power line connecting Kazakhstan to Tajikistan will allow Central Asia's common energy system to be reactivated. But plans to attract investment into new hydroelectric power plants are being held back by their political sensitivity.

Jiri Kominek in Prague
Fri, 5th Mar -- Czech tycoon Petr Kellner's PPF Group may be about to take its consumer lending business to China, but for the most part the investment is flowing in the other direction.

Graham Stack in Kyiv
Thu, 4th Mar -- Ukraine and agriculture should be a no-brainer, given the country's large swathes of famously fertile soil and its close proximity to Europe. The problem is the institutions. The financial results published March 1 from London-listed Landkom reveal just how hostile an environment Ukraine can be for the unwary.

Iana Dreyer of the European Centre for International Political Economy
Wed, 3rd Mar -- There is a clear link between most CEE gas markets still being monopolies and Europe's vulnerability to decisions by Gazprom to turn off the gas tap. A few antitrust cases in the new member states would go a long way toward remedying this.

Mike Collier in Riga
Wed, 3rd Mar -- The image of the grizzled cowboy coming reluctantly out of retirement for one last shoot-out in Dodge City may not immediately spring to mind when one meets the smiling countenance of the IMF's top trouble-shooter in CEE, but it is surprisingly apt.

Nicholas Watson in Prague
Tue, 2nd Mar -- A deal announced in December to buy out Invitel Holdings enabled emerging Europe-focused private equity house Mid Europa Partners to notch up two transactions in 2009 - a good performance during a time characterised by a lack of funding, wide gaps in valuations between buyers and sellers, and surprisingly few distressed deals.

Graham Stack in Kyiv
Tue, 2nd Mar -- It has become fashionable in some parts of Europe to create national champions of energy that are big enough to stand up to powerful oil and gas suppliers (read: Russian ones), to invest the enormous sums needed in plants and infrastructure, and to expand abroad. Romania is now vying to join that crowd.