/By Matein Khalid/The oil market has been a rollercoaster in 2016. A global financial panic triggered by China’s yuan depreciation caused Brent crude to fall below $30 a barrel in late January. I was amazed at the sheer scale of the speculative short positions accumulated by oil traders and hedge funds in both West Texas and Brent futures markets, the highest since the oil crash of 2008. The […]
UAE. Change is the new normal for the global health care sector, according to Deloitte’s recent report entitled “2016 Global health care sector outlook – Battling costs while improving care”. As providers, payers, governments, and other stakeholders strive to deliver effective, efficient, and equitable care, they do so in an ecosystem that is undergoing a dramatic and fundamental shift in business, clinical, and operating models. This shift is […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — As Muslims from around the world head toward Mecca for the annual hajj pilgrimage, Saudi Arabia and Iran have escalated their sectarian rivalry over which country represents the true Islam. Iran unleashed the first barb Monday, when the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused Saudi Arabia of deliberately killing pilgrims during last year’s hajj. He called for the world’s Muslims to reconsider Saudi […]
/By Matien Khalid/I have been bullish on emerging market debt as an asset class since last autumn. Even though the Chinese yuan devaluation was toxic, this asset class is up 12% in 2016, thanks to almost $5 billion in cash inflows. The tax amnesty in Indonesia, the political changes in Brazil after President Dilma’s impeachment, the election of a center-right pro-business government and $16 billion sovereign debt […]
ABU DHABI // Few people can say they have braved subzero temperatures and the virtually uninhabited, ice-covered landmass of Antarctic, but Fatma Al Sahlawi Al Ali can add her name to that list. After enduring mountainous hikes in the blistering cold, witnessing crumbling icebergs, observing fur seals, humpback whales and penguins on the frozen continent and plunging into icy waters during her expedition earlier this year, the […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Fitch Ratings has upgraded DP World Limited’s Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to BBB from BBB- and its Short-Term IDR to F2 from F3. The rating outlook is stable. The upgrade follows the Fitch announcement in November 2015 revising DP World’s outlook to Positive from Stable. It reflects the global trade enabler’s strong performance and stable cash flow generation supported by its geographical […]
INTERNATIONAL. Nearly all of the Chief Strategy Officers (CSOs) surveyed by Accenture (NYSE: ACN) around the world acknowledge that digital disruption will reshape their industries, but very few are equipped to navigate the change. Those who feel most prepared are embracing new strategic alliances, devising more collaborative ways of operating with partners, and making themselves indispensable within a broader ecosystem. For the report ‘Thriving on Disruption’, the Accenture […]
UAE. Based on a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) titled Self-Driving Vehicles, Robo-Taxis, and the Urban Mobility Revolution—and prepared in collaboration with the World Economic Forum—consumers around the world are surprisingly knowledgeable about Self-Driving Vehicles (SDVs) and their potential benefits, and, by and large, they are more than willing to give them a try. In fact, the study shows that 70% of consumers in […]
INTERNATIONAL. The future for many young people across the Middle East and North Africa looks bleak. The World Bank records that 54% of the working age population in the Middle East and North Africa is unemployed with little prospect of any positive immediate change. An average of 28.7% of 15 to 24-year-olds in the Middle East and 30.6% of those in North Africa are unemployed according to […]
INTERNATIONAL. Wealth-X today released key highlights from its 2015-2016 Billionaire Census revealing a record number of billionaires, globally. The third edition of this preeminent report indicates that there are 2,473 total billionaires in the world, representing a combined wealth of US$7.7 trillion. These figures illustrate a 6.4% and 5.4% increase since 2014, respectively. Driven by Wealth-X’s unparalleled collection of hand curated dossiers on the ultra high net […]
CAIRO — More than three months of peace talks to end the war in Yemen came to a halt Saturday, leaving in doubt the future of a shaky cease-fire and threatening to deepen what has a become one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The United Nations’ special envoy on Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, announced the suspension on Saturday in Kuwait, where the talks were being […]
INTERNATIONAL. New research from Long Finance, sponsored by PwC and conducted by Z/Yen, shows the wholesale insurance* market is enthusiastic about implementing blockchain solutions**. The report is based on interviews with brokers, insurers, reinsurers, regulators and trade bodies from across the global wholesale insurance market. As well as cost reduction and improved efficiency, blockchain could be a transformative technology changing the way the industry operates, enabling revenue […]
SAUDI ARABIA. — In line with its steadfast commitment to supporting the realization of the Saudi Vision 2030 – and its related strategic goals – The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has inaugurated a year-long Business Analyst Program in the Kingdom. The initiative is especially designed to help nurture young Saudi talents and equip the nation’s youth with the tools, knowledge, and leadership skills needed to excel in the […]
UAE. Project activity in the UAE is forecast to recover in 2017 after a difficult 2016 on the back of a strong recovery in economic growth, according to a new report from Middle East business intelligence service MEED. MEED’s annual UAE Outlook Report for 2016 says that a recovery in oil prices combined with growing public and private sector activity boosted by Dubai’s preparations for the Expo […]
INTERNATIONAL. – Higher GDP per capita alone does not determine real quality of life. This is according to the Social Progress Index (SPI) 2016 published recently by US-based nonprofit, the Social Progress Imperative. The Index ranks Finland the world’s most socially progressive country, Canada in second place tops the G7 nations. Economic growth is not the sole determinant of quality of life The 2016 Index finds that whist […]
Faster, higher, stronger: those are the three qualities captured in the official Olympic Games motto “Citius, altius, fortius”– to which some will want to add “dubious”. With doping seemingly rife in sport generally and the Russian Olympic team in trouble, it’s hard to see the Rio Games as the embodiment of the famous dictum of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, that it’s not the […]
The culmination of the world’s first tournament of automated computer security systems is set to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 4. The Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC) will be hosted by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in the Paris Hotel, where seven security teams will put their automated systems to the test for a chance to win almost $4 million in prizes. “Today’s approach […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|Iran is exploring a return to international debt markets for the first time since 2002, a senior government official said, as the Islamic Republic seeks to finance an economic recovery a year after a historic nuclear deal that offered it a route out of isolation, Bloomberg reported. It quoted Economy Minister Ali Tayebnia, whose ministry is at the forefront of securing Iran’s access to […]
Data centers are notorious for how much energy they require. Now, however, Google thinks it has found a way to mitigate that problem. Over the last few months, the tech giant has been using an artificial intelligence (AI) system built by DeepMind to control certain parts of its data centers to make its vast server farms more environmentally friendly. DeepMind is the British AI company that Google […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|Saudi Arabia will build a maritime complex on its east coast, with shipbuilding capability, to provide sufficient capacity for exporting oil, Bloomberg reported quoting Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih. The country, the world’s largest oil-producing nation, eventually will have a shipping fleet that will match its oil capabilities, Al-Falih said in Riyadh. Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, will need more tankers to meet global […]
|By Matein Khalid|Brexit will have a profound impact on international banking. It was no coincidence that the shares of UK, German, Swiss, Italian, Spanish and other banks fell 20-25% in a single trading session on news of Brexit. Even American money center banks and investment banks with a large footprint in the City of London fell 8 – 10% on Friday, June 24, 2016. As Deutsche Bank […]
INTERNATIONAL. Stock markets received a welcome boost during trading on Thursday following the Bank of England’s decision not to change interest rates which eased the ongoing Brexit fears, consequently lifting risk sentiment. Asian markets were elevated in the early sessions of Thursday after China’s better than expected GDP results alleviated concerns over slowing economic growth in the world’s second largest economy. Although European markets initially tumbled after […]
|By Matein Khalid| The merger of Abu Dhabi banks First Gulf Bank and NBAD creates the largest bank in the Middle East, a regional colossus with $170 billion in assets, competitive funding cost in the global interbank/capital markets and a market value greater than Credit Suisse, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) and Deutsche Bank. This is the biggest game changer event in UAE banking and finance since the […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — As the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approached, jihadist propagandists told their followers that it was a good time to kill people. The spokesman for the Islamic State said in late May that jihadists should “make it, with God’s permission, a month of pain for infidels everywhere.” Another extremist distributed a manual for using poisons, adding, in poor English: “Dont forget […]
