Salim Al Aufi, Oman’s undersecretary for oil and gas, likens attempts to cut the reliance on oil during a price slump to acting “with a gun pointed at your head.” If you have to make decisions under pressure, “you will probably make the wrong ones,” he said March 3 in Muscat during a panel discussion on the impact of the oil shock. Oman relied too much on […]
Declining oil prices are adversely affectingthe fiscal profiles of the countries in the region.Image: Reuters Mena sovereign ratings on the decline DUBAI, 4 days ago The sharp drop in oil prices since mid-2014 is likely to lead to weakening economic, external and fiscal profiles for the region, particularly for the GCC, said a new analysis released by Standard & Poor’s. However, of the 12 Mena sovereigns rated, […]
Gold imports by India, the world’s biggest consumer, are poised to surge after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley belied industry expectations for a reduction in tax. Overseas purchases may jump to 100 metric tons in March from about 25 tons in February as jewelers and traders, who delayed purchases in anticipation of the tax cut, replenish stockpiles, Rajesh Mehta, chairman of Rajesh Exports Ltd., said by phone from […]
HSBC Holdings, struggling to contain a scandal over tax evasion at its private bank, reported lower-than-predicted fourth-quarter profit as costs and conduct provisions rose. The shares slumped the most since 2011. Pretax profit dropped 56 percent to $1.7 billion from the year-earlier period, London-based HSBC said in a statement on Monday. That missed the $3.7 billion average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Full-year profit fell […]
|By A. Gary Shilling| At about $50 a barrel, crude oil prices are down by more than half from their June 2014 peak of $107. They may fall more, perhaps even as low as $10 to $20. Here’s why. U.S. economic growth has averaged 2.3 percent a year since the recovery started in mid-2009. That’s about half the rate you might expect in a rebound from the […]
Orascom Construction has started proceedings for the demerger of the company’s units with its engineering and construction business to be listed on exchanges in Egypt and Dubai, the Amsterdam-listed firm said on Monday. The demerger of the engineering and construction business from its fertilisers and chemicals’ unit will take place on March 7, the company forecast in a statement. Orascom Construction will re-list on Egypt’s bourse, having […]
|By Andrew Torchia| It’s a weekend morning at the Dubai Mall, a glitzy complex with 1,200 stores, and the shoppers are pouring in. A traffic jam has formed in the basement parking area. With passenger arrivals at Dubai’s airport at record highs, retailers expect a good month. The 55 percent plunge of oil prices since last June might be expected to usher in an age of austerity […]
In Saudi Arabia, where the currency has been fixed at about the same rate for 28 years, even the tiniest swings in the futures market reflect concern the peg will be broken. So the 0.2 percent drop that traders see by next year shows this is the most worried they’ve been about it since 2009. For Standard Chartered Plc and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, that speculation […]
Cyber threat… rise in malicious attacks on computers and mobiles Cyber threats increase by one billion in 2014 JEDDAH, 1 days ago A total of 6.2 billon malicious attacks on user computers and mobile devices were blocked by Kaspersky Lab antivirus products in 2014, one billion more than in 2013, the vendor of endpoint protection solutions reported. In 2014 Kaspersky Lab experts saw considerable growth in the […]
Sliding oil prices, leverage and sheer panic have exposed the fragility of Gulf equity markets just as they are becoming mainstream destinations for international investors. In May, MSCI upgraded Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to emerging-market status, drawing billions of dollars of new money to them. Saudi Arabia will open its bourse to direct foreign investment next year, which could draw tens of billions of dollars […]
Voters today rejected a referendum requiring the Swiss National Bank hold at least 20 percent of its 520-billion-franc ($540 billion) balance sheet in gold. Had it been approved, it would have led to purchases of at least 1,500 metric tons over five years. With lower oil prices reducing costs for consumers and the U.S. considering raising interest rates, demand is fading for hedges against inflation such as […]
OPEC’s decision to cede no ground to rival producers underscored the price war in the crude market and the challenge to U.S. shale drillers. The 12-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries kept its output target unchanged even after the steepest slump in oil prices since the global recession, prompting speculation it has abandoned its role as a swing producer. Yesterday’s decision in Vienna propelled futures to the […]
FlyDubai’s debut Islamic bonds are signaling growing appetite for sukuk from aviation companies in the Gulf as they spend on airports and fleet expansion. The budget carrier raised $500 million this month in the first sale of the debt by a regional airline after Emirates, the world’s largest operator of A380 superjumbo planes. The issue received bids for more than six times the amount offered. Gulf cities […]
Mumbai: The board of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday cleared big-bang market reforms, including a move to replace the two-decade-old insider-trading rules with the new prohibition of insider trading (PIT) regulations, and amending the existing delisting regulations. Additionally, Sebi approved new reforms in consent mechanism under which it will give entities found violating securities laws the option of settling the matter before the […]
New aircraft and fresh routes will help Dubai’s flagship carrier Emirates grow profit by no less than eight to ten percent in coming months, its president said on Wednesday. “We will continue to grow at a percentage which is never going to be less than about 8-10 percent, and that’s a conservative figure,” Tim Clark said on the sidelines of an aviation conference in Dubai. Clark warned […]
Kolkata: The fear of bad loans and limited lending opportunities to top companies have prompted several banks to shift focus towards the retail (individual loans) and small & medium enterprises segments. India Inc’s reluctance to borrow money is keeping bankers worried. While lenders were able to stem fresh impairment in their credit quality in the July-September period, low demand for corporate loans has decelerated the growth in […]
KOLKATA: State-run NTPC, the country’s biggest power generator and thermal coal consumer, plans to acquire at least 26 per cent stake in coal mines abroad to secure longterm fuel supplies for all its power plants, a senior executive said. This is a shift from the company’s earlier stance of seeking only minority stakes in such mines to ensure fuel for plants that operate only on imported […]
By Nantoo Banerjee Given the size of the country’s domestic market of goods and services, the prime minister’s vision of manufacturing in India is no doubt a very practical idea not only from the point of view of the scale of local consumption but also the opportunity it holds for the export of surplus production. No country can sustain an import-led economy forever. However, its success will […]
By Sankar Ray If all goes well, India and Russia will shortly ink the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India & the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan & Russian Federation. The coming visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India next month is supposed to impart a new dimension to the bilateral ties between India and Russian Federation and speedy finalization of the FTA between the two […]
By Garga Chatterjee If you have not watched the YouTube video Enna Da Rascalas: South of India, you should. It is a crisp catchy-tune video made by a talented group of artists calling themselves the Culture Machine and Stray Factory. It has gone ‘viral’, logging more than 1.2 million hits in 7 days. It humorously aims to inform people about the different peoples of ‘South of […]
By Anjan Roy China is riding the crest of its economic success currently. It has taken one more step to make its currency globally traded and thus acceptable. China has announced what is known as the Hong Kong-Shanghai Stocks Connect from November 17. This in effect means off shore trading in the Chinese currency for purchase of stocks in Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges. Earlier, […]
Mumbai: The finance ministry will meet chief executives of public sector banks on November 20 to take stock of the progress made under the Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). There will also be a review of the performance of the lenders. Hasmukh Adhia, the newly appointed secretary of financial services, who took charge on November 8, will chair the meeting. Adhia, a Gujarat-cadre IAS officer of […]
Qatar will become the Middle East’s first hub for clearing transactions in the Chinese yuan, in a step that could over the long run help Gulf oil exporting countries reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s Doha branch has been appointed as the clearing bank for yuan deals in Qatar, China’s central bank said on Tuesday. “The signing of the MoU […]
NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry has asked Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan to provide greater flexibility to banks funding stalled infrastructure projects, after concerns were raised by senior bankers that some lending requirements were too ‘stringent’. A department of financial services communication to Rajan sought to de-link the extent of cost overruns as a condition for classifying any project as a restructured asset. […]
