By Rachel Morarjee

While stocks and property markets have tumbled, the global appetite for fine wine has continued to grow, funded by the nouveau riche in China and Russia.

The price of fine wines has tripled since 2001 but that is likely to slow down now as even rich people worldwide are being more careful about their spending, especially when it comes to life’s luxuries.

So a vineyard is not necessarily a means to get rich – more a place to store your cash and grow it slowly, with careful pruning. Société Générale’s private banking team in France can help you find a vineyard in the country famed for some of the world’s best wine labels. “You cannot expect to make money fast. The investment in a vineyard typically has a yield of 3 per cent, so we warn customers to be realistic about their expectations,” says Patrick Follea, deputy general manager of private banking at SG in France.

And of course if you can’t sell all the wine, you can always sit back, look at the view and drink your profits.

Mauritius, island paradise and a tourist hotspot, has become one of the easiest places in the world to start a new business.

A new World Bank study analysing business practices in 33 small islands ranked Mauritius second overall behind Singapore, but top when it came to setting up a business.

Since coming to power in 2005, Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam has introduced a range of reforms that have cut red tape and encouraged investment – both from local entrepreneurs and from overseas. It now takes, on average, just six days to open a new business.

The quiet hum of an electric car is to become a regular sound on the streets of Japan: Lawson, the nation’s second largest convenience store chain, is to replace 10 per cent of its 1,500 vehicles with electric cars. The chosen model of eco-wheels is the new iMiEV, which will be mass-produced this summer by Mitsubishi Corporation, Lawson’s biggest shareholder.

Lawson – which has more than 8,600 stores in Japan and 285 in Shanghai – will also trial the installation of battery chargers in its car parks, in a reflection of an anticipated electric car revolution. Around 400,000 electric cars were sold last year across western Europe, North America, Japan and China – and this is forecast to soar to 14 million by 2020, according to a recent Boston Consulting Group report.

After years of trying, Syria is finally setting up its own stock exchange. After a launch in March, the Damascus bourse will run, with a limited number of companies trading on the floor, for a cautious trial period.