Rising unemployment, strained household incomes and a fragile economic backdrop are likely to push house prices lower in the coming year, according to the property research group Hometrack's latest housing market outlook.
After all, 2010 presents a much more fragile economic backdrop than in 2005 when the major hurricanes last struck.
Unwittingly, he had chosen a time when a fragile peace formed the backdrop to the country's first election in decades, and the atmosphere was explosive: runaway inflation, skyrocketing AIDS infections, the unsettling presence of thousands of international troops monitoring the election.
In a report assessing debt levels against the backdrop of fragile global financial markets, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) recognised that traditional aid is not going to cover the estimated $600bn-$600bn-$1.2tn£455-£910bnthef implementing the sustainable development goals in Africa, but warned that plugging the gap with debt was risky.
But, in the end, it's a sturdy enough backdrop for this fragile and finally rather absorbing experiment.
"Having said that, the economic backdrop remains pretty fragile, and the question is going to be where is revenue growth going to come from".
The European Central Bank has cut interest rates across the eurozone to zero as it unveiled an unprecedented package of growth-boosting measures against the backdrop of a fragile global economy.
"These country programmes will be starting against a backdrop of a fragile global economic situation and effects of the slow recovery of the preceding years of financial crisis.
Secondly, the difficulty of conducting the study against the backdrop of a highly fragile and volatile environment presented extreme weather conditions, a cholera outbreak and political and social unrest that impeded the research to be conducted in a prompt and planned fashion.
"Against this backdrop, redemptions reduced but investor sentiment remained fragile and we are yet to see an increase in sales".
