The extremely wobbly global economy has spared only a handful; and those lucky ones include the French bank Societe Generale! Saying that French and international consumer banking operations showed "resilient activity," the bank expects to break even for the fourth quarter of 2008 by reporting euro2 billion - or $2.59 billion - in net profit.

After having announced a euro3.35 billion loss in the fourth quarter of the earlier year, and massive trading losses of euro5 billion at the beginning of 2008, the bank credited its overall solid performance by the end of the year to "the solidity of its retail banking activities and its diversified business portfolio."

With the French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreeing on additional provision of euro10.5 billion in aid to the biggest lenders of the country, in exchange for their top executives relinquishing bonuses, Societe Generale will get 1.7 billion euros as its share from the state.

In fact, the bank appreciated the swift execution of the second stage of the French plan for strengthening the banks' capital. It said that the aid would enable banks "to pursue the financing of the French economy while maintaining high solvency ratios.

Societe Generale also added that with the state aid, its Tier 1 capital ratio will rise to "close to 9 percent" from 8.5 percent at the end of 2008, the company said.