Cairo/ AFP Egypt has an ambitious three-year reform plan that, with foreign help, can revive its struggling economy, the minister of international cooperation said. In an interview, Sahar Nasr said the “three-year strategy” will lead to a return of investments, boost industrial production and create jobs. It comes as Egypt faces not only falling growth and a currency crisis ...

    Bloomberg Those oil service companies and drillers that are still around will likely survive. That’s the good news, according to Kevin Liang, who helps oversee 10 billion kroner ($1.2 billion) in bonds at Svenska Handelsbanken AB in Oslo. But the bad news is that the debt market for Norway’s battered oil sector is now a very different animal. ...

  Bloomberg Oman, the largest Arab oil producer that’s not an OPEC member, plans to sell between $1.5 billion to $2 billion of bonds internationally in 2017 to plug a deficit caused by low crude prices. “There’s an appetite still and I think even when interest rates are raised there will still be appetite,” Ali Hamdan Al-Raisi, vice president for ...

  Reuters Royal Dutch Shell signed a provisional agreement on Wednesday to develop Iranian oil and gas fields, an Iranian official said, the first deal by the world’s second biggest listed oil firm in Iran since sanctions were lifted. The Anglo-Dutch company confirmed it had signed a memorandum of understanding with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) on Wednesday “to further ...

  Bloomberg Oil traded near $51 a barrel amid speculation a production boost from U.S. shale producers will counter the first output cuts from OPEC in eight years. Futures fell 0.2 percent in New York after falling 1.7 percent on Tuesday, the first drop in five days. The Energy Information Administration increased its U.S. oil output forecast for this year ...

  Reuters State-run Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) said it signed a contract with the world’s top exporter Saudi Aramco on Wednesday to extend a crude oil storage deal on the island of Okinawa by three years. Under the agreement, Saudi Aramco can store up to 1 million kilolitres (6.3 million barrels) of crude oil on the ...

  Sydney / AFP Australia’s economy contracted for just the fourth quarter in 25 years, official data showed on Wednesday, slowing the annual growth rate to 1.8 percent amid weaker government and consumer spending on top of softer trade figures. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported a 0.5 percent contraction for the September quarter. It was the weakest figure in ...

  Bloomberg India’s money-losing state power retailers may be scaring off power plant investors, according to Sembcorp Industries Ltd., compounding the industry’s woes that have left about 20 percent of the country without electricity. Delayed payments by the distributors and their reluctance to sign long-term purchase contracts are risks for investors, said Vipul Tuli, chief executive officer at the Singapore-based ...

  Bloomberg India will risk jeopardizing billions of dollars of investment by Japanese companies if it does not implement an arbitration award favoring NTT Docomo Inc. in its spat with the Tata Group, a senior Japanese government official said. A decision to double investment to 3.5 trillion yen ($31 billion) in India hinges on a quick settlement of the award, ...

  Bloomberg Stretched property valuations mean Hong Kong’s economy is vulnerable if interest rates rise faster than expected, the International Monetary Fund said. In its annual assessment of the Asian financial hub, the IMF identified three main risks — rising interest rates and potential global market volatility, China-linked stress, and a possible downturn in the property market. With the US ...