Tributes to Mr. Djindjic poured in from abroad, where officials also praised his efforts to revive an economy battered by conflict and sanctions.

Mr. Peres's program is supposed to cut double-digit inflation, stimulate an economy badly battered by the Palestinian uprising and cut a bloated public sector and subsidies to workers.

Why bananas disappeared and why they have returned, albeit at this inflated price, says much about Algeria's daunting effort to repair an economy battered by 25 years of socialist mismanagement.

But Senator Cohen's decision to leave Congress comes at a time that Maine voters appear particularly restless, even as Governor King says the state's economy, battered by the last recession, is improving.

The lower half of Rustaveli Prospekt is in ruins, as is the Georgian economy, battered by Mr. Gamsakhurdia's nationalist nostrums.

His apparent indecisiveness has compounded the frustration ordinary people feel at the power games dominating Serbian politics while the economy, battered by wars and international sanctions, remains stagnant.

The increased repression has come at a time when Serbia's economy, battered by sanctions, is showing signs of renewed inflation.

Local officials, lawmakers and oil industry workers feared the moratorium would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and add insult to injury for a regional economy already battered by the massive spill.

The data are a bright spot in a global economy battered by a sharp slowdown in America and an increasingly fragile Japan.

Across Caracas today, though, people expressed little faith that things would get better soon, promising a dire Christmas for a country that has seen its economy badly battered by a year of political turmoil.