Abu Dhabi / Reuters Growth of the United Arab Emirates’ gross domestic product is expected to accelerate to 3.9 percent in 2018, a senior official of the Ministry of Economy said on Tuesday, citing a forecast by the central bank. Abdullah Al Saleh, the ministry’s undersecretary for foreign trade, was speaking at a busi-ness conference. Last month, the central bank ...

DUBAI / Reuters Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), the emirate’s second-largest bank by assets, raised $540 million through the sale of a Formosa bond, sources told Reuters on Tuesday. ADCB has been among the most active Gulf banks in the Formosa market in the past year or so. Formosa bonds are sold in Taiwan by foreign issuers and denominated in ...

DUBAI / Emirates Business Emirates NBD, a leading bank in the Middle East and a front-runner in digital banking solutions, and Dynamics Inc. at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (“CES”) announced plans to introduce the first battery-powered, interactive payment cards to the United Arab Emirates in 2018. Wallet Card is the world’s first connected, secure payment card. In recognition of ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM Etihad Aviation Group (EAG) on Tuesday confirmed the appointment of Mark Powers as its new Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO), who will join the Group in January 2018. Powers will be responsible for the finance function across the Abu Dhabi-based group’s five divisions, which comprise UAE national airline Etihad Airways, Etihad Airways Engineering, Etihad Airport Services, ...

Dubai / WAM The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has announced that it will organise and host the 2nd Global Business Forum (GBF) on Latin America in Dubai on February 27-28, under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The two-day forum will be ...

Dubai / WAM The Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC) has become an observer member of the London-based Responsible Finance and Investment (RFI) Foundation, it has been announced. The step represents the rising stature of Islamic finance among the world’s responsible finance systems. Under the terms of the partnership, the RFI Foundation and DIEDC will collaborate towards the common goal ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM Ways of promoting investment and cooperation in multiple areas, particularly renewable energy and infrastructure, were the crux of a meeting on Tuesday HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation held with Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Berdyniyaz Myatiyev. The two sides discussed an array of regional and ...

Bloomberg US stocks added to all-time highs before the start of earnings season, while the dollar got a boost from policy steps in Asia that propelled Treasury yields to the highest level in nine months. The S&P 500 Index rose a sixth straight advance in an unblemished start to the year, the Dow Jones Industrial average resumed its march higher ...

Reuters Gulf stock markets were mostly sluggish on Tuesday as Qatar slowed after surging for two days, but Egypt’s bourse rose after authorities announced a date for presidential elections. Some of the best performers of the past two days pulled back, with Doha Bank losing 1.5 percent. But Aamal Co rose 2.4 percent after announcing plans for an affiliate which ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), on Tuesday awarded the two Front End Engineering Design (FEED), contracts for its planned offshore ultra-sour gas mega-project, which consists of the Hail, Ghasha and Dalma fields. Bechtel was awarded the Hail and Ghasha FEED Contract, and TechnipFMC the Dalma FEED Contract. Both are worth many hundreds of millions ...