SANA, Yemen — After five months of war in which more than 4,000 people have been killed, Yemen’s government, exiled in Saudi Arabia, faces a fateful decision: leverage recent battlefield gains to negotiate a cease-fire with a weakened Houthi rebel movement, or try to rout the rebels once and for all. Backed by air support and ground troops from Persian Gulf nations, fighters allied with the government […]
Chinese airlines and European luxury car makers are emerging as the early losers after the People’s Bank of China let the yuan fall the most in two decades. China’s surprising move to cut its daily reference rate by 1.9 percent Tuesday rippled through global markets. Policy makers called the change a one-time adjustment and said its fixing will become more aligned with supply and demand. While it […]
By WILLIAM J. BROAD August 8, 2015 Twenty-nine of the nation’s top scientists — including Nobel laureates, veteran makers of nuclear arms and former White House science advisers — wrote to President Obama on Saturday to praise the Iran deal, calling it innovative and stringent. The letter, from some of the world’s most knowledgeable experts in the fields of nuclear weapons and arms control, arrives as Mr. Obama is lobbying […]
RAS LAFFAN, Qatar — The temperature hovered around 100 degrees on the jetty here, where a set of pipes were connected to a giant red-hulled ship. But the moisture in the air froze on the pipes and flaked off, creating snowlike flurries on the early summer evening. The incongruous sight is common on the Qatari ship, the Al Rekayyat, which carries a frigid fuel known as liquefied […]
|By Matein Khalid| Every global recession since the OPEC oil shocks of 1973-74 was triggered by a contraction in the $17 trillion US economic colossus. The failure of Lehman Brothers, the meltdown in US subprime mortgages, the impotence of the implicit “Fed/Uncle Sam” put, the ice age in the commercial paper and interbank money markets all tipped the US economy into recession in late 2008 and triggered […]
The developer Meydan has announced the launch of a new scheme known as Meydan One featuring a 711m-high tower, a huge new mall, the world’s largest indoor ski slope, a 25,000 sq metres indoor sports facility, the biggest dancing fountains in the world, a beach and a civic plaza capable of hosting up to 60,000 people. It is also to contain a 100-berth marina. And, a retractable […]
The Iranian energy projects market represents a $167 billion opportunity for regional and international companies as the Islamic Republic prepares for the lifting of sanctions, a report said. According to the latest data from Meed Projects, the Mena leading projects tracking service, there are 197 individual energy (oil, gas, petrochemical, industry and utilities) projects either planned or under way in Iran, a number that could well double […]
TEHRAN — Despite the smiling clown, a symbol of the Great Satan’s love for meat, buns and fries, there were no angry mobs punching fists in the air, shouting “Death to America”; nor did the smell of burnt American flags permeate this Tehran neighborhood. It smelled of juicy burgers, flipped by a cheerful Iranian teenager named Jahan. His kitchen was crowned with a flashing logo that looked […]
INTERNATIONAL. New research from PwC projects that traditional assets under management (AuM) in 12 markets across Africa will rise to around $1,098 billion by 2020, from a 2008 total of $293 billion. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 9.6%. Traditional asset management, in particular the mutual fund industry, is expanding aggressively across Africa. This will largely be driven by a number of factors: […]
ABU DHABI // Bertrand Piccard, co-founder of the Solar Impulse project and one of the pilots of Solar Impulse 2, the world’s first totally solar-powered aircraft, is looking to his staunchest supporters for funds to continue his journey around the world. Mr Piccard returned to Switzerland looking for €20 million (Dh80m) to repair the damage caused to Solar Impulse 2 as it flew to Hawaii. As the […]
The yield on bonds of Abu Dhabi has decreased four basis points since 22 July, the day the UAE announced the move to remove fuel subsidies, Bloomberg reported. While the average yield on developing-country debt has increased 13 basis points since the 22 July announcement of fuel-price deregulation, the yield on bonds of Abu Dhabi has declined four basis points. The yield on bonds of the neighboring […]
|By Matein Khalid|So Pearson PLC has sold the FT Group (with its flagship Financial Times newspaper) to Japan’s Nikkei Inc for $1.32 billion. Pearson will use the cash proceeds to increase its investment in education publishing businesses in the US and Canada, now 75% of revenues. This deal is a milestone in the history of newspaper publishing and my own life as an investor/financial journalist. I discovered […]
Gold stocks dropped, erasing most of yesterday’s gains, on concern Chinese buyers are losing their appetite for the metal. Gold Fields Ltd., which owns mines in South Africa and Australia, sank 6.7 percent as of 2:34 p.m. in Johannesburg. Sibanye Gold Ltd. and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. tumbled more than 6 percent. The FTSE/JSE Africa Gold Mining Index fell 5.5 percent and is trading near the lowest since […]
UAE. A recent qualitative report sponsored by Citi and conducted by Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy, studied the personality of HNWI in the UAE. The results of the research revealed the different needs that they believe are impacting their disposition towards wealth management and analyzed their attitudes towards investments. The participants were represented by a small group […]
ABU DHABI // Newly-published statistics from Statistics Centre – Abu Dhabi (Scad) show that the population of the emirate is 133 times what it was in 1960. From that year until 2014, the population grew at an average rate of 9.5 per cent, which is one of the highest rates of growth in the world, state news agency Wam reported. During that time, the total population of […]
The bargain hunters who thronged Kumar Jain’s jewelry store in Mumbai as gold prices tumbled in 2013 are staying away for now. They’re holding off because they think this week’s collapse to the lowest price in five years has further to run, according to Jain. That’s a view shared with Goldman Sachs. “It hasn’t been anything like what happened two years ago,” Jain said, referring to the […]
INTERNATIONAL. On the eve of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, GeoPoll, the Global Entrepreneurship Network and the U.S. State Department released a survey of 1,000 business owners throughout sub-Saharan Africa on entrepreneurship in their countries. GeoPoll surveyed 200 entrepreneurs per country in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, asking them what resources are most needed […]
UAE. Wermuth Asset Management has announced its expectation that, given the availability of solar power at $4 cents/kWh, a price with which crude oil could only compete if offered below $7/barrel, the ‘carbon bubble’ will burst and that it will have profound implications for the Middle East’s oil producing countries, global financial markets and the world economy. If COP21 leaders this year commit to a global 2⁰C […]
ABU DHABI // A decision to link gas and diesel prices to global oil markets has been described by industry leaders as an important reform initiative for the country. Suhail Al Mazroui, the Minister of Energy, announced on Wednesday that fuel prices will be deregulated from August 1 as part of the government’s plan “in diversifying sources of income, strengthening the economy and increasing its competitiveness in […]
|By Matein Khalid| As a student of investing and the son of a painter/art historian, I cherish art as a visceral, spiritual value but am also intrigued by its historical linkage to banking and the financial markets. The happiest moments of my life have been spent in the Prado, Tate, Hermitage, Rijksmuseum, Ufizi, MOMA, Met, the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay and so […]
INTERNATIONAL. Africa continues to remain vastly unexplored, and making Africa’s most remote regions accessible for trade will not only promote prosperity in those regions, but also elevate the continent’s continued growth path. This is according to Charles Brewer, Managing Director of DHL Express Sub-Saharan Africa, commenting on The Role of Trade in Ending Poverty report, jointly written by the World Bank Group and World Trade Organisation, recently released by […]
The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, responded to the Iran deal as expected: It is bad, endangers Israel, he argued; we are against it and will be the only American ally not only to oppose it, but to go down gloriously, fighting a battle in Congress that we are destined to lose. Mr. Netanyahu often warns that Iran is like Nazi Germany in 1938, fooling naïve […]
ABU DHABI // It has gone so fast – and so far, so good. It’s already the third anniversary of work starting on the UAE’s first nuclear power plant at Barakah, near the border with Saudi Arabia. And it is still on budget and set to go live in late 2017, ultimately providing a quarter of the Emirates’ energy needs. But becoming the first new member to […]
DUBAI // For decades, Dubai Creek has been a hub of activity as traders bring in goods and sell their wares at the bustling markets nearby. Even today, laden dhows can be seen unloading items to be sold at the Spice Market, on the Deira side of the saltwater Creek, and other souqs around the city. Most of these dhows’ captains are Bangladeshis and Pakistanis but, in […]
