An Uber representative registers people on his smartphone during the kick off of a citywide jobs tour in the Queens borough of New York July 21, 2015. Reuters/Shannon Stapleton/Files BRUSSELS Brussels will launch a study in September of the taxi-hailing app Uber, in an effort to settle the legal disputes that have pitched the U.S. start-up against conventional taxis across Europe, three people familiar with the matter […]
A logo is pictured at Google’s European Engineering Center in Zurich April 16, 2015. Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann/Files BRUSSELS Google Inc has rejected EU antitrust charges that it abused its market power, exposing the company to the risk of a hefty fine if it does not alter its business practices. The company’s comments came after the European Commission in April accused it of distorting internet search results to favour […]
INTERNATIONAL. Market price action dictates direction – traditional support levels were broken violently. Yesterday’s market was the most energised sell-off since 2008/2009. – The US dollar lead this crisis and will lead back up when the low is in – We have reached most of Steen Jakobsen’s technical targets and below is his primitive “expected” path from here (2015 low getting established) – We will see recession […]
INTERNATIONAL. OPEC next gathers December 4 in Vienna, just over a year since Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi announced at the previous OPEC winter meeting the Saudi decision to let the oil market determine oil prices rather than to continue Saudi Arabia’s role of guarantor of $100+/bbl oil. Despite the intense financial and economic pain this decision has inflicted on Saudi Arabia, its fellow OPEC members, and […]
A photo illustration shows the Ashley Madison app displayed on a smartphone in Toronto, August 20, 2015. Reuters/Mark Blinch Infidelity website Ashley Madison and its parent company have been sued in federal court in California by a man who claims that the companies failed to adequately protect clients’ personal and financial information from theft, saying he suffered emotional distress. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in […]
UAE. The continuation of low energy prices is impacting both optimism and risk appetite in the Middle East, according to Deloitte’s latest report “Global CFO Signals: CFO Sentiment Q2 2015 – Staying focused; remaining vigilant”. With oil at US$53 a barrel at the time of the survey, CFO optimism fell to one of its lowest levels in recent years, with only a net 26% across the Middle East […]
UAE. The MENA Region is all set to become a global logistics hub in the next few years, an Al Masah Capital Limited Report on “Transportation & Logistics in MENA” has revealed, which experts believe will be driven by the emergence of the MENA-Asia trade corridor that will redefine global supply chains. Notably in 2013, India and China ranked as top merchandise export and import destinations for MENA […]
UAE. Business confidence in the Middle East continued to fall in the second quarter of 2015, but not as quickly as it had in the first three months of the year, according to the to the Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) organised by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and IMA (the Institute of Management Accountants). The slight optimism was due to a temporary reprieve in […]
Aden // Residents of Aden are slowly getting their lives back on track thanks to thousands of tonnes of UAE aid being distributed across the city. The historic port was left ravaged after it was attacked and occupied by Houthi rebels from northern Yemen. Many from Aden fled to other parts of the country or overseas to escape the fighting. Those that remained have faced a breakdown […]
|By Matein Khalid| Geopolitics is now another source of risk for the Turkish lira, government debt and Istanbul equities. The Turkish air force is bombing Daish in Syria and the secessionist Kurdish PKK party in northern Iraq. Suicide bombings have killed Turkish citizens in eastern Anatolian cities on the Syrian border. Ankara has given the US a green light to launch military airstrikes from the Incerlik air […]
UAE. Generation Y, otherwise known as the Millennials, are a very appealing pack of consumers to advertisers for two reasons: They are happily spending their disposable income now that they have entered full-time work and they have unprecedented influential power. Millennials are very active on their social channels and it is their voice that is becoming the primary source of information on products and services. In the […]
ADEN // The streets of Aden are filled with the flag of the UAE – fluttering above checkpoints, flying from cars, and draped over homes, businesses and government buildings. In the weeks since Houthi rebels were driven from Yemen’s southern port city, there has been an outpouring of gratitude from residents for Emirati troops. “The Emirates’ soldiers were in the frontlines of the battle against the Houthis, […]
FRANKFURT Smartphone apps that help people learn languages for free or nearly free, a few sentences at a time, are piling pressure on established education firms and setting the pace for how to make lessons more engaging. Phone and tablet-based mobile products from newcomers like Germany’s Babbel, Britain’s Memrise and U.S.-based Duolingo have overtaken names like Berlitz and computer self-learning pioneer Rosetta Stone (RST.N) in terms of […]
TORONTO Emails sent by the founder of infidelity website AshleyMadison.com appear to have been exposed in a second, larger release of data stolen from its parent company, cyber security experts confirmed on Thursday. The data dump by hackers who have attacked the site appears to include email messages linked to Noel Biderman, founder and chief executive officer of its Toronto-based parent company Avid Life Media. In a […]
Egypt will lower the top tax rate and threshold for companies and individuals in high income brackets and freeze a 10 per cent tax on capital gains within two weeks in order to attract investors and boost the economy, the finance minister has said. “We await the issuing of amendments lowering the income tax ceiling to 22.5 percent as well as amendments to the capital gains tax […]
INTERNATIONAL. In the wake of China’s recent devaluation of the yuan, companies need to be more strategic than ever in their manufacturing-sourcing decision-making, focusing on clear-headed, case-by-case analysis and tight project management. That is according to a new study, including a survey of almost 250 senior-level executives in Western Europe and North America from manufacturing and distribution companies in 20 industries, released today by AlixPartners, the global […]
LEBANON. Byblos Bank issued today, in cooperation with the Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut, the results of the Byblos Bank/AUB Consumer Confidence Index for the first half of 2015. The results show that the Byblos Bank/AUB Consumer Confidence Index declined marginally in January and February, grew in March, regressed in April, and slightly improved in May and June 2015. Further, the Index […]
INTERNATIONAL. Global investors have shifted their attention from Greece to China amid continued concern of a Chinese recession, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for August. Respondents are scaling back their expectations for economic growth. · China recession is now rated the number one “tail risk” by 52 percent of panel. · Fifty-three percent of investors say the global economy will strengthen in coming […]
DUBAI // The last day of Federal National Council registration lived up to expectations as 90 candidates rushed to apply before the deadline. “Just as we thought, the last day of registration in Dubai had the biggest turnout,” said Ahmed bin Humaidan, the head of the Dubai Federal National Council Election Committee. In Dubai, 21 candidates registered yesterday, six of whom were women. “We’re very pleased with […]
LONDON — In a significant indication of warming Western relations with Iran after a deal limiting its nuclear program, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond will reopen Britain’s embassy in Tehran, probably on Sunday, British officials said Thursday. Four years ago, in November 2011, the ambassador’s residence there was ransacked and the British flag burned by protesters angry about the economic sanctions imposed on Iran in response to its […]
EY, a leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services, has acquired Seren, an international digital consultancy based in the UK with a significant footprint in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region. Seren has been working closely with governments, banks and media organisations in the Mena region to drive digital business transformation through a customer-centred approach to design, said a statement. Gerard Gallagher, Mena advisory […]
Ooredoo, a Qatar-based leading telecom group, has announced that its Maldives operation won an Internet Service Provider licence from the Communication Authority of the Maldives (CAM) earlier this month. The company received the licence after a competitive bidding process, which saw Ooredoo come out ahead of national and international competition, the company said. Ooredoo has established a strong presence in the Maldives in the mobile broadband sector […]
The UAE, which leads the Arab world for network readiness, must take full advantage of the potential offered by ICT solutions to drive social and economic transformation, according to experts. Considerable challenge is facing the UAE as it seeks to develop the infrastructure, institutions, and skills needed to reap the full benefits of ICTs, added senior executives from Cisco, a global leader in IT. Out of 143 […]
The recent action taken by the UAE to eliminate fuel subsidies has rekindled the debate on tax reform in the GCC, with the focus on domestic implementation of a broad-based Value Added Tax (VAT) on goods and services. While countries are facing an increasing amount of pressure on their national budgets, every GCC government understands the urgent need for fiscal-sustainability, added the report “VAT in the GCC […]
