Adding to this sobering outlook is the uncertain effect that the outbreak of SARS will have not only on the Asian economies (which was the one region that was expected to show significant positive growth this year) but on the tourist industry world-wide.
In particular, measuring and modeling different kinds of risks faced by banks, the behaviour of risk-return relationships associated with different portfolio mixes and the impact of fluctuations in financial markets on the financial performance of banks are areas which lend themselves to analytical and empirical appraisal by economists and econometricians.