Sending out an SOS (TT Feb03 p6-7)

Last year ended on a gloomy note, with weak stock markets and high oil prices. Falls in share prices ranged from almost 35% in Germany, 25% in the UK, and some 17% in the US. Acute concerns over a war in Iraq have been accentuated by oil price rises to $30 per barrel. But worries over the general economic outlook, coupled with anxieties over the threat of new acts of terrorism, have also dampened confidence.