News

Bloomberg French economic activity is running at 5% below pre-crisis levels as the government holds off from imposing a full Covid-19 lockdown beyond the current curfew and closures in some sectors, the Bank of France said on Tuesday. After dipping to 7% below normal during November’s lockdown, the economy improved somewhat in December and is expected to remain steady through ...

Bloomberg Optimism among US small businesses falls in January to an eight-month low as the outlook for economic conditions deteriorated sharply. The National Federation of Independent Business index of sentiment falls by 0.5 points to 95, the third-straight decline, the group said. The figure was weaker than the median projection of 96.8 in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Weak consumer ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. said it will take stronger steps to eliminate false information about Covid-19 and vaccines on its social network, a move that could remove major groups, accounts and Instagram pages for repeatedly spreading misinformation. The company is acting on advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other groups to expand its list of false claims that are ...

Bloomberg German industrial production failed to grow for the first time in eight months in December, adding to signs that the economy is being weakened by the second wave of the pandemic. Output stagnated at the end of last year as gains in manufacturing were offset by weaker construction. Economists had expected a 0.3% gain. “The outlook for the industrial ...

Bloomberg Mario Draghi told lawmakers he’ll make a common euro-area budget a policy priority for Italy if he becomes prime minister this month, in a sign of his ambitions for the incoming administration. Carlo Calenda, head of the Azione party, and Manfred Schullian, head of the group of unaffiliated lawmakers in lower house, both told Bloomberg that Draghi had emphasised ...

BEIJING / WAM Dr Ali Obaid Al Dhaheri, UAE Ambassador to China, has said that with entering into the Chinese New Year, there is optimism on the horizon, with both the UAE and China achieving respective arrivals to the orbit of Mars. Al Dhaheri stated, “Spring Festival upon us as we enter into the Chinese New Year, many of us ...

DUBAI / WAM DP World Limited has announced that it handled 19.1 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) across its global portfolio of container terminals in Q4 2020, with gross container volumes increasing by 7.6 percent year-on-year on a reported basis and up 6.5% on a like-for-like basis. On a Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 basis, DP World handled 71.2 million TEU, ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The increased issuance of Sole Establishment licences in the UAE continued in the first month of 2021, underscoring the robust activity of the sector, which recently attracted many investors from both inside the country and abroad. The National Economic Register’s recent figures show that relevant authorities issued over 4,000 new licences for Sole Establishment around the ...

ABU DHABI / WAM President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has expressed his condolences to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, on the death of the mother of Prince Abdul Rahman bin Faisal bin Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice ...

Bloomberg Oil in London rose above $60 a barrel for the first time in more than a year as stockpiles tighten and the demand outlook improves amid the global rollout of Covid-19 vaccines. It’s another milestone in a stellar comeback from the biggest demand destruction in a generation after the pandemic forced countries to lock down, devastated economies and grounded ...