Divided fortunes

The past year was difficult for many corporates, as they coped with rising prices for raw materials, ebbing demand in some of their main markets and new accounting rules in Europe. So how well have the banks performed in helping business weather the storm? By Gareth Gore, with survey research by Xiao-Long Chen

A rift has begun to appear in the corporate world, with some parties already predicting that 2006 will be looked back on as a year that divided companies into the haves and the have-nots. Many global businesses are facing a squeeze due to rising raw material prices on one side and weakening consumer demand - especially in the North American and European markets - on the other. But while the situation is causing a long and painful financial headache in much of the manufacturing world, the world's