Saudi Arabian banks are feeling the squeeze from falling oil prices. The rate at which banks in the biggest Arab economy lend overnight to each other jumped the most in seven years in November, the fifth straight month of increases, following a slump in deposits the previous month that forced lenders to seek more funds from each other. “The drop in deposits in October, in absolute amount, […]
|By Lawrence Williams| Let’s face it, the gold price seems to bear little correlation to global physical metal demand. In the face of reducing supply (low gold prices keep scrap sales depressed, new mined gold supply is plateauing and beginning to fall and sales out of the big gold ETFs this year are a fraction of those seen back in 2013) and increasing demand – China, India […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| It is a double whammy for gold this Thursday. The metal was trading near its lowest in nearly six years while Reuters reported from Mumbai that third-quarter gold buying in India, the world’s biggest consumer, is likely to fall to the lowest level in eight years. Gold is hurt by poor investment demand as the dollar held at multi-month highs after U.S. economic […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Masdar announced the start of the operational stage of its pilot programme in Ghantoot, Abu Dhabi, which will see 1,500 m3/day of potable water produced over the next 15 months using four unique technologies that demonstrate commercially-viable and energy efficient solutions for renewable-powered desalination. After launching the programme in 2013, Masdar partnered with four global industry leaders – Abengoa, Suez, Sidem (Veolia) and […]
Indian online taxi aggregator Ola has today announced that it has deployed boats in waterlogged and partially submerged areas in Chennai. Relentless heavy rains resulted in water logging in significant portions of the city. The boats will also be used to provide food and drinking water in specific areas which are reportedly short of basic supplies. Both ferrying services and supplies will be offered free of cost […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Young people in the UAE have revealed what they want for, and from, the future of major events in an international study launched ahead of the Host Cities 2015 summit. It finds young people in Dubai are most confident globally in their city’s readiness to host a major event and will overwhelmingly back a ‘home bid’ – with the FIFA World Cup their […]
|By Arabian Post staff| The rise of intelligent machines represents the evolution of the next industrial revolution, which will bring about a paradigm shift in the way we live and work, a special report on the subject by BankofAmerica-Merrill Lynch says. Robots and AI are becoming an integral part of our daily lives as providers of labour, mobility, safety, convenience, and entertainment. The year 2014 was the […]
Gunmen and bombers attacked restaurants, a concert hall and a sports stadium at locations across Paris on Friday, killing at least 120 people in what a shaken President Francois Hollande called an unprecedented terrorist attack. A Paris city hall official said gunmen systematically slaughtered nearly 100 people attending a rock concert at the Bataclan music hall. Anti-terrorist commandos eventually launched an assault on the building, killed the […]
|By TAP Staff| Total gold demand in Q3 2015 stood at 1,121 tonnes , an increase of 8% compared to the same period last year, according to the World Gold Council’s Gold Demand Trends report. Q3 2015 consisted of two distinct halves. In the first part, a number of factors, including ETF outflows, contributed to a price dip which buoyed consumer demand around the world. A shift […]
|By TAP Staff| Residential rents in Abu Dhabi may be reaching an affordability ceiling, particularly at the higher end of the market, the latest Abu Dhabi Real Estate Market Overview report by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) and its real estate advisory subsidiary MPM Properties said. But given year on year growth, tenants in this segment are still seeing sizeable rental increases at lease renewal, the report […]
|By TAP Staff| Middle East carriers recorded a 9.9% increase in passenger traffic demand in September, well down on the 13.7% year-over year growth experienced in August, International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced. Capacity rose 12.9% and load factor slipped 2.1 percentage points to 75.7%. Major economies in the region, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have experienced slowdowns in non-oil sectors, it pointed out. […]
AUCKLAND, New Zealand The next revolution in space, making humdrum what was long the special preserve of tax-funded giants like NASA, will be launching next year from a paddock in New Zealand’s remote South Island. The rocket launch range is not just New Zealand’s first of any kind, but also the world’s first private launch range, and the rocket, designed by Rocket Lab, one of a growing […]
|By TAP Staff| The GFMS Gold Survey for the third quarter is bearish on the short term prospects of gold and expects the metal to trade back down below $1,100/oz for the remaining months of the 2015. According to the survey, published by Thomson Reuters, gold is set to remain under pressure until there is more clarity on the timing and the scale of US rates normalisation. […]
Boston-based enterprise storage provider ClearSky Data said it has raised $27 million in a Series B investment round led by Polaris Partners, along with Akamai Technologies. The money will be used by ClearSky to refine its managed service delivery model for enterprise storage, which the company said combines the performance and availability of primary storage with the economics and scalability of the cloud. ClearSky made a splash […]
|By TAP Staff| Emaar Properties recorded a growth in net profit of 16 per cent for the first nine months (Jan to Sept) 2015 to AED 3.048 billion (US$ 830 million) compared to AED 2.622 billion (US$ 714 million) during the same period in 2014. Revenues for the first nine months of 2015 were AED 9.849 billion (US$ 2.681 billion), a growth of 25 per cent over […]
|By Matein Khalid| Saudi Arabia has fascinated me since I first met Hani AZ Yamani as a teenage student all those years ago at Wharton. Hani’s father was Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, legendary Saudi Oil Minister (1962-86) under Kings Faisal, Khalid and Fahd. Sheikh Yamani managed the 1973 and 1979 oil shocks, survived a terrorist assault in Vienna by Carlos the Jackal, midwifed the birth of Saudi […]
|By TAP Staff| Starting salaries for professional occupations are expected to see modest rises over the next 12 months, according to the Robert Half 2016 Salary Guide. Across professional occupations including finance and accounting, financial services, information technology, legal, and human resources and administration, salaries are expected to see an average rise of 1.7%. The roles that are the most difficult to fill are predicted to see […]
Oil at $50 a barrel is a “gift to the world” as prices should be low enough to spur economic growth, according to the head of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Economic Development. Prices will probably be at $60 next year, after hitting bottom at $45, Ali Al Mansoori, the department’s chairman, said in an interview Sunday in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the fourth-largest oil producer […]
|By TAP Staff| Iran’s Bank Mellat, one of the most high-profile private entities sanctioned in 2009 for alleged links to Iran’s nuclear programme, won a morale-boosting victory against the British Treasury this week when a Court of Appeal upheld its demand for greater disclosures about the charges being leveled against it. The verdict was based on the principle that the accused has a right to know what […]
|TAP Special by K Raveendran| The UAE healthcare sector was the scene of high drama as the Al Noor Hospitals Group, being pursued by leading sectoral player NMC Group to form the country’s biggest private healthcare provider, apparently broke off and announced it has reached an agreement for a merger with South Africa’s Mediclinic International Ltd. Al Noor will also be renamed Mediclinic International. Al Noor said […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai is hoping that the lifting of sanctions on Iran will help the emirate’s economy to withstand some of the negative shocks it has been suffering in recent times. Those “pull factors,” which also include increased demand from India, will compensate for any economic headwind from China’s slowdown, Raed Safadi, executive director of the economic research and policy division at the Dubai Department of […]
|By TAP Staff| Dr David Alessi, the Beverley Hills-based plastic surgeon who helped many a celebrity transform their faces and body shapes to keep pace with the latest trend in high fashion, will soon be available in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for the benefit of people in the UAE and the region. The founder and medical director of Alessi Institute located in Beverly Hills is currently here […]
|By TAP Staff| Global oil prices have bottomed out, with signs of a recovery seen in 2016, Qatar’s Energy Minister Mohammed Al Sada was quoted as saying. Growth in non-OPEC oil supply slowed “substantially” this year and is likely to remain flat or turn negative in the next, Al Sada said in a statement. “Call on OPEC oil is expected to become healthier,” to 30.5 million barrels […]
The Twitter logo is shown at its corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California April 28, 2015. Twitter Inc. cut its full-year revenue forecast due to weak demand for its direct response products, sending its shares down as much as 24 percent on Tuesday.Twitter said it… Reuters/Robert Galbraith SAN FRANCISCO Twitter Inc rolled out its much-anticipated “Project Lightning” on Tuesday, a feature that shows users the site’s best […]
