Includes bibliographical references and appendices.

International financial reporting and analysis are changing because global and localenvironments are changing. In the days when most business operations were largelyorganized within national boundaries,accounting thought, practices and regulationgrew up in significantly different ways in different countries,consistent with nationalenvironments and characteristics.
Now, however,business is global in its operations as are its economic,social andenvironmental impacts; the demand for finance is global and the supply of finance isglobal.Therefore,financial reporting must be global too. From slow beginnings,the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has become the acceptedstandard-setter in many countries. Since 2005,every listed EU,UK,Australian andNew Zealand company has been required to produce its group financial statements inccordance with International Accounting Standards (IAS® Standards)and InternationalFinancial Reporting Standards (IFRS® Accounting Standards). Many countries followedhis example and now require compliance with IFRS Accounting Standards for theiristed companies(e.g. Argentina,Brazil,Canada,South Korea).Other countries,asdiverse as the US and China,are seeking closer convergence, as a minimum,with IASBequirements. The US allows accounts prepared in accordance with IFRS Accountingtandards without reconciliations for US stock exchange listings for foreign registrants.
The effects on accounting and reporting for business entities operating at a nationalr local level, many of them small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), are unclearnd are likely to vary in different places.Two points are very clear to us. First,nationalneeds,characteristics and ways of thinking will remain significant at the SME level.Second,the application of agreed IFRS Accounting Standards will continue to benfluenced by the context and environment in which the application takes place.