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Unhappy New Year?

The prospects and opportunities for the year ahead.

It is customary to welcome in the New Year with some optimistic platitudes about how everything is going to get better. Well this year is different, in Europe anyway.

European leaders greeted the New Year predicting problems ahead. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the continent was experiencing its "most severe test in decades", France's President Sarkozy said the Eruozone crisis was not finished, while Italy's president called for more sacrifices. Meanwhile Greece is already experiencing its first strike of the year - Greek doctors and pharmacists walked out today.

So what will the year hold for the Eurozone and beyond? Justin Rowlatt is joined by Vanessa Rossi of Oxford Analystica to gaze into the Business Daily crystal ball.

But what opportunities are there out there for investors. Is the doom and gloom in Europe going to throw a pall over the entire world and does that mean you should just keep any cash you may have under the matress? Justin Rowlatt asks Tom Stevens, Investment Director, Fidelity, on where he thought the profits might be in 2012.

And finally, when we talk about the markets on this programme, we don't usually mean the kind where you go to actually shop. But in Cambodia that's the only sort people would think of.

While other south east Asian nations are well-known for their mega-malls, Cambodia's just restored the most magnificent of its traditional markets as our correspondent in Phnom Penh, Guy De Launey, reports.

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18 minutes

Last on

Tue 3 Jan 2012 08:32GMT

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  • Tue 3 Jan 2012 08:32GMT

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