Asia is riding high as the world's saviour, taking up the slack from an ever-weakening US economy. Its main vulnerability is its dependence on increasingly expensive oil to continue developing, and the inflationary pressures affecting the price of food. These vulnerabilities pose a series of political challenges, with riots becoming more common; economic challenges, as subsidies eat into state coffers; and development challenges, as gross domestic product growth no longer pulls people out of poverty and into a consuming middle class. China, which is set to stage the Olympics this summer, once again dominates the list of the Top 25 Asian banks. China's ICBC, Bank of China and China Construction Bank (CCB) take the top three positions in the regional ranking. Each of them achieved a Tier 1 capital increase in 2007 compared with the previous year. The biggest rise was at CCB, with Tier 1 capital increasing from $42,286m to $52,300m, followed by ICBC with a rise from $59,166m to $66,27 1m.
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