TEHRAN — As the music ended and the crowd rose in a standing ovation, several women in the audience could be seen with heads bared, the obligatory head scarves draped around their necks. This was no underground concert by an indie band in North Tehran, though. Rather, it was a recital by a classical lute player in Vahdat Hall. As the opera house emptied, the women casually […]
JERUSALEM — A Palestinian teenager fatally stabbed two Orthodox Jewish men inside Jerusalem’s Old City on Saturday night, the Israeli police said. It was the second fatal attack on an Israeli family in three days. A woman was also wounded in the stabbing, and the police said that the Palestinian wrested a gun from one of his victims and fired at tourists and security forces, wounding a […]
RAMALLAH, West Bank — In a letter to the Israeli president just three months ago, Naama Henkin said she had contributed money to a fund for orphaned children, and asked him to do more to protect Jewish families like hers who live in West Bank settlements. The president, Reuven Rivlin, read the letter at the funeral for Ms. Henkin and her husband, Eitam, on Friday morning. The […]
Boxes move on a conveyor belt at a Wal-Mart Stores Inc company distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas June 6, 2013. Reuters/Rick Wilking/Files ATLANTA Wal-Mart Stores’ expanding network of large distribution centers will allow it to deliver packages throughout the United States in two days, setting it up to compete more efficiently in online holiday sales, a senior executive said on Thursday. Competition with online rivals including Amazon.com, […]
UAE. Banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) reported a good set of earnings in the first half of 2015 thanks in part to declining credit losses–and despite the continued squeeze on interest margins. But, owing to the knock-on effects of lower oil prices on growth and asset quality, earnings could weaken over the next several quarters. That’s according to Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services’ report, “Gulf […]
UAE. A recent report surveying 150 financial advisors in the UAE – part of a larger Natixis global study of 2,400 advisers in 14 countries across the globe – has revealed that investors making emotional investment decisions in turbulent markets is the top mistake advisors see among individual investors. Advisers are concerned that individual investors tend to be too focused on short-term market events, leading them to […]
When President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority told the United Nations on Wednesday that the Palestinian people “cannot continue to be bound by” agreements with Israel, what was he repudiating? Mainly, he was talking about the Oslo peace accords, which Mr. Abbas’s predecessor, Yasir Arafat, signed in 1993 and 1995 with Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli leader who was later assassinated by an extremist Jew. Those accords […]
The Syrian civil war, now in its fifth year, involves multiple countries with overlapping and at times conflicting agendas. Competing visions of how to manage the conflict, which has led to a major global refugee crisis as well as the rise of the Islamic State, dominated discussions at the United Nations General Assembly this week. But despite days of meetings and diplomatic maneuvering, the crisis has only […]
UAE The next six months may prove a pivotal turning point in the recovery of global commodities markets according to Ole Sloth Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, the online trading and multi-asset investment specialist. Following nine months of geo-political incidents in Europe and the Middle East, and widespread uncertainty catalysed by major economic crises in Greece, Russia and China, Hansen is optimistic the next […]
UNITED NATIONS — President Obama called upon a conclave of world leaders on Tuesday to fight violent extremism with not only weapons, but also ideas, jobs and good governance, a strategy he has long advocated. There are few signs that it is succeeding. Military pressure, Mr. Obama said at a United Nations summit meeting, will be insufficient to vanquish groups like the Islamic State, also known as […]
Indonesia is drawing interest from Middle Eastern banks seeking to tap the world’s biggest pool of Shariah-compliant investors as some Islamic lenders wind down or close operations in Malaysia and Singapore. Emirates NBD PJSC wants to invest at least $300 million in a new Shariah lender or acquire a stake in an existing one, Dhani Gunawan Idat at Indonesia’s financial regulator said in a phone interview. That’s […]
|By Matein Khalid| Even as China’s President meets the capo di tutti capi in Seattle, its manufacturing PMI falls to 47, a post Lehman low, with new export orders in a slump. I found it significant that the offshore yuan fell 200 pips to 6.4346 after the PMI. This proves my core argument, outlined a month ago. The Middle Kingdom will respond to its economic decline and […]
Saudi Arabia has withdrawn as much as $70 billion from global asset managers as OPEC’s largest oil producer seeks to plug its budget deficit, according to financial services market intelligence company Insight Discovery. “Fund managers we’ve spoken to estimate SAMA has pulled out between $50 billion to $70 billion from global asset managers over the past six months,” Nigel Sillitoe, chief executive officer of the Dubai-based firm, […]
Gulf Related will borrow 2.3 billion dirhams ($626 million) from Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank to finance the construction of a shopping mall that will house the first Macy’s store outside the U.S. Gulf Related, a venture between Abu Dhabi’s Gulf Capital and New York-based Related Cos., announced the plan in a statement Monday. The 400-store mall, scheduled to open in 2018, is in Abu Dhabi’s new business […]
INTERNATIONAL. The low level of insurance penetration seen in many Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, combined with the robust, albeit deteriorating, profitability achieved by the leading primary insurers, has made the region a target for international and domestic reinsurers. A new special report by A.M. Best examines how insurance markets in the MENA region have grown significantly over the past decade. MENA insurance premiums surpassed […]
Janet Yellen may have unwittingly helped the Indian dollar-loan market rebound from a three-year low. Less than a week after the Federal Reserve Chair delayed raising U.S. interest rates, billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. hired 16 banks for a $1.5 billion loan and Rural Electrification Corp. also approached lenders. That takes the pipeline of local dollar-denominated loans planned, mandated or in syndication to more than $5 […]
While Dubai continues to pump out sumptuous new apartment blocks, for a rising number of expatriates the city no longer offers the luxury lifestyle that lured many foreigners to the Gulf. A shortage of affordable homes and a reduction in overseas allowances since the financial crisis are pushing foreign staff on middle incomes out to less glamorous areas of the city far from the office, or to […]
SHARJAH // A lack of jobs is leading some Khor Fakkan residents to call for more Emiratisation, while others are concerned about health insurance and retirement allowances. Many who have graduated from universities cannot find a job and are calling for prospective Federal National Council (FNC) members to intervene. Jamila Rashed, 26, graduated in 2010 and was still looking for employment. “I applied to the public and […]
|By TAP Staff| FGB claims to be the first bank in the UAE to offer a one-stop financing solution to start-ups. The bank’s new ‘Startup Proposition’ offers new businesses a range of financial solutions, from business current accounts and business credit cards, to start-up loans, overdrafts and trade/working capital facilities, with no collaterals required. The start-up package is designed to support new businesses in the initial stages […]
INTERNATIONAL. Gleaming glass skyscrapers, state-of-the-art technology, and wealthy merchant families have replaced the Gulf’s muddy towns and villages populated by traders and pearl fishers that once lacked electricity, running water or modern communications. The region’s modern day projection of a visionary cutting- edge, 21st century urban environment masks however the fact that some things have not changed. Gulf states continue to be ruled by the same families, […]
UAE. One of the most powerful gatherings of Arab region and international minds will convene in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, next month (October) for a Summit which is aimed at producing recommendations for a blueprint to reposition the Arab world’s standing within the global landscape. Running October 10 and 11 at The St. Regis Abu Dhabi, Beirut Institute Summit will probe a […]
WASHINGTON — As the war in Iraq deteriorated, a senior American intelligence analyst went public in 2005 and criticized President George W. Bush’s administration for pushing “amateurish and unrealistic” plans for the invasion two years before. Now that same man, Gregory Hooker, is at the center of an insurrection of United States Central Command intelligence analysts over America’s latest war in Iraq, and whether Congress, policy makers […]
UAE. Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States of America are the world’s five most innovative nations, according to the Global Innovation Index 2015, while China, Malaysia, Viet Nam, India, Jordan, Kenya, and Uganda are among a group of countries outperforming their economic peers. The GII 2015 looks at “Effective Innovation Policies for Development” and shows new ways that emerging-economy policymakers can boost […]
UAE. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said today that although it expects that some corporates and infrastructure issuers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will likely feel the weight of lower oil prices, most of its rated entities show resilient financials for now, in an industry report card published today titled, “Some Gulf Corporates Could Feel The Heat On Low Oil Prices.” Corporate and infrastructure companies in the […]
