FILE PHOTO — A woman looks at her phone as she passes by a Lending Club banner on the facade of the the New York Stock Exchange December 11, 2014. Reuters/Brendan McDermid/File Photo SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters/IFR) – Many online lenders have failed to detect the “stacking” of multiple loans by borrowers who slip through their automated underwriting systems, lending company executives and investors told Reuters. […]
LEBANON. Byblos Bank issued today the results of the Byblos Bank Real Estate Demand Index for the first quarter of 2016. The results show that the Byblos Bank Real Estate Demand Index posted a monthly average of 42.5 points in the first quarter of 2016, representing a decrease of 12.5% from 48.5 points in the fourth quarter of 2015. The results constitute the ninth steepest quarter-on-quarter decline […]
INTERNATIONAL. A sense of disappointment permeated through the global markets during trading on Monday following last week’s shocking NFP result of 38k that discounted expectations over the Fed raising US rates in Q2. With the number of jobs created falling to its lowest level since 2007, the Dollar was left vulnerable as concerns elevated over a potential economic slowdown in the States. Although the headline unemployment rate […]
INTERNATIONAL. –(BUSINESS WIRE)–Shifting power relationships in the Middle East are reordering regional geopolitics, entrenching a stalemate of conflict that threatens to further destabilize the region. Wars in Syria and Yemen and against the Islamic State, combined with the balancing of supply and demand in oil markets later this year, will likely return a risk premium to oil prices in 2017, says a new special report by IHS […]
UAE. According to a new report, PwC Middle East’s ‘Care Anywhere: Moving health and wellness out of the hospital into the hands of the consumer’, technology is providing the opportunity for new ways of accessing and delivering healthcare. In a society that is living longer, with Governments facing the growing burden of long-term chronic disease and increasing costs of treatment, innovation and technology could be the catalyst […]
A new 10-core processor from Intel debuted at Computex yesterday, one of four new CPUs the company unveiled. While ostensibly designed for the desktop market, the chips might have more in common with their server-level cousins, both in terms of price and computing power. The 10-core model alone will set you back a cool $1,723, more than enough to buy your own system. The company is promoting […]
|Arabian Post Staff| Banks in Saudi Arabia are coming under fresh pressure over products that allow speculators to bet against the kingdom’s currency peg, Bloomberg reports quoting people with knowledge of the matter. Bloomberg said the Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency has asked lenders to explain why they are offering dollar-riyal forward structured products to customers less than four months after the regulator banned options contracts that let […]
This summer, Acer will begin releasing a number of new devices aimed at different types of users, including a new series of notebooks for business users and two new 2-in-1s for students and budget-conscious buyers. Taiwan-based Acer plans to showcase its latest releases at next week’s Computex expo in Taipei. It also plans to unveil its BeingWare vision for smart city and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. […]
UAE. Brent crude pushed above key psychological level to trade above $50 for the first time since November 2015. The 85% rally since Brent hit a 12-years low in Jan was supported by multiple factors, mainly oil disruption from major exporters and production cut back by U.S. shale. Meanwhile the double than expected drop in U.S. inventories supported bulls to keep holding their long positions. According to […]
|By Matein Khalid| In retrospect, 2016 will go down in German political and economic history as a significant game changer, on the scale of 1989 (fall of the Berlin Wall), 1990 (reunification) and 1999 (the Euro), even 1945 (launch of Deutschemark), 1945 (Third Reich surrenders), 1943 (Stalingrad) and 1933 (Hitler elected). Chancellor Merkel, renamed Mutti Multi kulti, allowed a million migrants to settle in Germany. The far right […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The overall tourism spend by visitors to the UAE declined by 6% in the first quarter of 2016, according to a report on consumer card spends by Network International, the leading payment solutions provider in the MENA region. Due to a continuous appreciation in the US Dollar along with a bullish global economic outlook and a fall in the prices of crude oil, […]
Abu Dhabi: The Ministry of Economy on Wednesday said it will ensure there is enough food supply throughout Ramadan to prevent hikes in prices, which are being closely monitored and regulated. The measures include Ramadan discounts by major retailers on 5,000 items, in addition to the ongoing price caps on 4,000 items throughout the year. Moreover, the ministry will carry out […]
DUBAI // Parents are struggling to pay for their children’s education, with employers cutting or doing away with allowances as school fees rise along with the wider cost of living. And there are fears that cutting those allowances will make it harder to attract the best and brightest from overseas to work here, at a cost to the economy. “This year in Abu Dhabi there will be […]
Dubai: The cost of insuring exposure to Saudi Arabia risk for a five-year period widened by 8 basis points ahead of its bond issue as investors increased hedging bets. The five-year Saudi Credit-Default (CDS) Swaps jumped to 160 basis points on Tuesday compared to 152 basis points last Monday, data showed. “This accounted for their large […]
INTERNATIONAL. Global inclusion in the internet could bring seven percent of the world’s population – 500 million people – above absolute poverty levels, and add US$6.7 trillion (£4.6 trillion) to global economic output, according to a new study by Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting business. The study, for Facebook, encompassed 120 countries over a 10-year period and examines how barriers to accessing the internet could be removed, and […]
ABU DHABI // Car dealers are looking to the traditionally busy holy month to recoup on poor sales this year – so don’t be afraid to squeeze them, an industry insider advises. With low oil prices hitting the economy and job losses in major sectors, some dealers are reporting sales 25 per cent lower than normal for the first five months of the year. “Car sales across […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Dubai’s government owned property developer Limitless will make an early payment of 2.07 billion dirhams ($564 million) to banks and trade creditors after reaching a second debt restructuring deal with them, Bloomberg reported. The company will pay 1.9 billion dirhams to banks this month, covering 43 percent of the outstanding loan amount, Limitless said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday. It will pay 163 million […]
|By Matein Khalid| If ever there was a year to win or lose money big time in emerging markets, 2016 was it. As an investor in the world’s dark alleys (the Third World rebranded as EM!), I am forced to dissect geopolitical, government/monetary policy, foreign exchange, flows, positioning and current account, volatility and credit cycle trends across emerging markets to develop money making strategies. It helps that I […]
Reuters/Jim Urquhart/Files SAN FRANCISCO Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday warned that a dangerous financial bubble has formed in the technology industry – and Silicon Valley responded with a collective eye roll. In a Reuters interview, the New York billionaire said technology start-ups that had never earned a profit were able to sell shares at very high prices, likening the situation to the overheated […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Saudi Arabia ranks among the top dozen foreign holders of U.S. debt, the Treasury Department disclosed, breaking its silence on the issue for the past four decades. “The stockpile of the world’s biggest oil exporter stood at $116.8 billion as of March, down almost 6 percent from a record in January, according to data the Treasury disclosed Monday in response to a Freedom-of-Information […]
Ministry has been also taking steps to intervene in the market on time so that consumers are not affected by price rise New Delhi: Keen to prevent a repetition of last year’s skyrocketing prices of onions and pulses, the union Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry is taking steps to prepare timely import plans and also set up buffer stocks of these items, official sources said here on […]
UAE. According to a new survey released by PwC Middle East, capital projects and infrastructure has been greatly impacted by slowdowns and deferrals of government spending as a result of ‘lower for longer’ oil prices. PwC Middle East’s survey titled “Delivering during change” includes responses from over 130 owners and developers across the region from a range of sectors including transport, cities and urban development, social infrastructure, […]
UAE. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region witnessed only two IPOs raising US$615.0m in Q1 2016, representing another quarter with limited IPO activity, according to EY. Capital raised through MENA firms in Q1 2016 increased by 141%, while the number of IPOs were consistent (2 IPOs), compared with Q1 2015. Phil Gandier, MENA Transactions Leader, EY, says: “Q1 2016 witnessed limited IPO activity, in line […]
|By Matein Khalid| The April payrolls data demonstrated that US economic growth has hit a soft patch. The US economy only added 160 jobs in April, less than the expected 203,000 average in the first three months of 2016. One disappointing data point does not imply a macroeconomic trend reversal since the US economy added 2.8 million jobs between March 2015 and March 2016. Statistical and measurement errors […]
