Banks have also increased the rigor of the due diligence processes applied to hedge fund counterparties, including the use of their own quantitative risk management specialists to conduct on-site reviews of hedge fund risk management systems. Increasingly, hedge funds recognize that they need to provide their counterparties with more information.
Visitor arrivals dropped by only 1 percent much lower than the 8 percent that we had projected and this is encouraging. However, tourism earnings were lower not only as a result of lower tourist arrivals but more so of the discounts offered by hotels and the reduction in the length of stay. Most other economic sectors declined in 2007.