Last year was a relatively tough year for real estate players across the UAE, as the market adjusted to lower levels of economic growth. This ‘new normal’ is a reflection of oil prices well below their peaks of 2014 and 2015. While the average oil price declined dramatically during 2015, the decline was much more modest in 2016 and it is important to recognise that oil prices […]
Terrifying, crazy and breathtaking could all be used to described the Dinner in the Sky experience. Taking flight in Dubai from January 10, a maximum of 22 diners at a time will be hoisted 50 metres in the air over Dubai Marina to enjoy one of the most unique dining initiatives in the world. The big dining table in the sky is not for the fainthearted, foodie […]
Two weeks ago we previewed that the U.S. Department of Energy could begin to sell off some of its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) as soon as January, the beginning of a multi-year process to shrink the nation’s stockpile of oil. Congress has authorized DOE to sell off $375.4 million worth of oil in its recent budget resolution. The DOE said that such a sale could be held […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Saudi Arabia is working with PricewaterhouseCoopers on plans to cancel about $20 billion of projects as the kingdom seeks to shore up its finances, Bloomberg reported quoting sources. The Ministry of Economy and Planning hired the consultancy firm to review $69 billion of government contracts with a view to cutting about a third of them, it quoted sources as saying. Projects under review […]
No one can ever confidently predict what will happen in the following 12 months, but forecasting 2017 is particularly difficult. The surprises of 2016 (Brexit and the election of Donald Trump are at the top of the list but there were others, including the sacking of the entire Kuwaiti parliament, Saudi Arabia’s backflip on its oil production policy and the sudden demonetisation in India) demonstrate that we […]
Leading suppliers see a significant rise in inquiries for ESLs from regional retailers 08 January 2017 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) are entering the region with a big promise of saving on both operations and energy costs in the retail sector. A global forecast report by market research firm Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence, revealed that global market for Electronic Shelf Label Market will grow from […]
By Bernie Woodall and David Shepardson | DETROIT DETROIT Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCHA.MI) (FCAU.N) on Sunday said it will invest $1 billion to modernize two plants in the U.S. Midwest and create 2,000 jobs, upping the ante as automakers respond to threats from President-elect Donald Trump to slap new taxes on imported vehicles. FCA’s announcement that it would retool factories in Ohio and Michigan to build new […]
Last year was tough for global aviation and, like many in this sector, there’s not much I wouldn’t give for a crystal ball to see what 2017 has in store. Having said that, the consensus is that we can expect more of the same, with the wide range of macro challenges that beset the world in 2016 continuing. War and regional conflicts are ongoing and the ever-present […]
After one of the most tumultuous years in its modern history, Turkey is struggling to convince global investors to look beyond economic weakness and political risk. Fund houses willing to bet on countries such as South Africa, where a corruption scandal is consuming the ruling ANC party, and Brazil, where President Michel Temer is battling to save his administration from corruption investigations, say the headwinds facing Turkey […]
Monday 2.15am GMT Overview Asian stocks were on the rise, buoyed by record highs for Wall Street on Friday and a broadly encouraging US employment report. Hot topic Investors were keeping a cautious eye on China’s currency market, although the renminbi has softened since Friday and last week’s burst of strength. The renminbi was 0.1 per cent weaker at Rmb6.9325 per dollar, as the People’s Bank of […]
Image: ZDNet Anniversaries are opportunities to reflect on what has come before, and to imagine what may transpire in the future. For some, an anniversary is a time for reconfirmation and reaffirmation of beliefs; for others, it is an opportunity to acknowledge the past and to move on. This weekend, industry analysts and volume buyers are returning from CES in Las Vegas, having just seen the multitude […]
By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices fell early on Monday as Iran increased exports undermining efforts by other oil producers to curb a global fuel supply overhang and as U.S. drillers increased activity for a 10th week. Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were trading at $56.97 per barrel at 0019 GMT, down 13 cents from their last close. U.S. West […]
UK taxpayers are facing a £24bn bill for decommissioning oil and gasfields in the North Sea — threatening to wipe out remaining tax revenues from an industry that has been among the Treasury’s most reliable cash cows for the past four decades. The new estimates show how the North Sea oil industry risks becoming a net drain on UK resources as it enters its sunset years and […]
A year ago Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince and the power behind the throne, electrified the global energy industry by revealing plans to float the world’s largest oil producer. The ambitious proposal for an initial public offering in state-owned Saudi Aramco is the centrepiece of the hard-charging 31-year-old’s vision to overhaul an economy seen as too heavily dependent on natural resources. One year on […]
Banks and petrochemicals stocks could be relative strong performers in the GCC in 2017 thanks to benchmark interest rate rises and a recovery in the global crude oil price, although slowing economic growth may weigh on regional markets. Both sectors have suffered in the last couple of years due to the dramatic oil price decline. The knock-on effect of lower investment and economic growth hit banks, with […]
Descriptive analytics — looking into what has happened in the past — is commoditized. Traditional BI, reports, and dashboards are well understood and used in one way or another across a wide spectrum of organizations to keep an eye on their operations. Predictive analytics — trying to predict what will happen in the future — is in the limelight. Today many organizations are scrambling to utilize predictive […]
Last year was truly unforgettable. It is the year we celebrated Mara’s 20th anniversary and launched three new businesses: an infrastructure investment vehicle for Africa; an online jobs portal, Mara Jobs; and a last-mile delivery business, Mara Xpress. It is also the year we launched the inaugural Ashish J Thakkar Global Entrepreneurship Index 2016 to better understand entrepreneurial environments around the world. But perhaps what will stick […]
Our round-up of the week’s best comment and analysis from the Financial Times focuses on debunking misleading parallels between Reaganomics and Trumponomics and what changes the new US president’s policies will force in investor behaviour. The selection is taken from our Markets Insight and Smart Money columns, written by industry contributors and FT commentators. The world is too different from the 1980s for Donald Trump to achieve […]
Bahrain’s government needs to implement an action plan in order to help hotels overcome financial challenges such as low room occupancy rates and increased overhead costs, with four and five-star hotels having reported an average room occupancy rate of 40 percent last year, experts said. The industry took a hit in 2015 due to low oil prices and remained slow throughout 2016, Bahrain Four Star Hotels Committee […]
Britain’s three quoted major supermarkets are expected to report this week that they enjoyed solid Christmas trading, though investor concern about a potential squeeze on consumer spending in 2017 means the focus is on their outlooks. Shares in market leader Tesco (TSCO.L) and Morrisons (MRW.L), the UK’s fourth biggest grocer, soared 38 percent and 55 percent respectively in 2016, reflecting a recovery in trading. That coincided with […]
Oil started the first week of 2017 with a bang but ended it with a whimper, as the Opec fireworks that dominated the last quarter gave way to the more mundane reality of monitoring if the cartel will make good on its pledged cuts. Brent crude oil briefly touched an 18-month high above $58 a barrel on the first day of trading but there was little fresh […]
By Ange Aboa and Loucoumane Coulibaly | BOUAKE, Ivory Coast BOUAKE, Ivory Coast Disgruntled soldiers demanding salary increases and the payment of bonuses seized control of Ivory Coast’s second-largest city, Bouake, on Friday, in an uprising that spread to at least two other cities. A statement from Defence Minister Alain-Richard Donwahi read out on state television said a group of soldiers had used their weapons to force […]
The amount of money making bets that US Treasuries will fall in value climbed to a new record high over the last week in a wager that faster US economic growth and higher inflation will weigh further on government bond prices. So-called “non-commercial” speculative positions selling the 10-year Treasury futures contract have been rising since the US presidential election and hit 816,156 contracts in the week to […]
Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com, Yes, the narrative of the “new normal” has been around for so long now that many people have simply grown used to it. The assumption is that the fiscal “new normal” has become the fiscal “normal,” and though the fundamentals continue to strain under the weight of poor global demand and historic debt levitated by extraneous fiat stimulus, the masses feel […]
