News

Bloomberg Demand for mortgages jumped last month to the highest since early 2017, according to data. Loans for house purchases rose almost 11% from a year earlier to a seasonally adjusted 43,342, lobby group UK Finance said. The report covers seven high street banks representing around 60% of total mortgage lending, data on which are due to be published by ...

Bloomberg A collapse in exports pushed Europe’s largest economy to the brink of recession in the second quarter. In a sign that an increasingly hostile trade war between the US and China is at least partially to blame for Germany’s deepening manufacturing malaise, shipments abroad declined 1.3%, the most in more than six years. That led to a contraction in ...

Bloomberg Tropical Storm Dorian is gaining strength as it approaches the Lesser Antilles and is forecast to skirt Puerto Rico as a weak hurricane. The storm was about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east-southeast of Barbados as of 8 pm New York time. With maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour, Dorian is expected to drop 3 to 8 inches ...

Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) record loan to Argentina last year was supposed to turn the page on a troubled history. It’s looking more like a case of déjà vu. Less than two decades ago, Argentina crashed out of an IMF program, defaulted on debt and plunged into depression. As Fund officials arrived in Buenos Aires to assess the ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The United Arab Emirates has condemned the Houthi militias’ attempts to target the city of Jazan in the Kingdom Saudi Arabia with six ballistic missiles. In a statement issued on Monday, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation reiterated its full solidarity with the kingdom over these terrorist attacks targeting civilians, affirming its support ...

DUBAI / WAM DP World has announced a partnership with Zhejiang China Commodity City Group (CCC Group) to develop a ‘Traders Market’ at Jebel Ali Freezone (Jafza). DP World will hold a majority share in the 70/30 joint venture. The Traders Market project will span approximately 800,000 square metres, with Phase 1 development covering about 220,000 square metres. Phase 1 ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank approved a record 1.76 trillion-rupee ($24.4 billion) payout to the federal government, boosting New Delhi’s coffers at a time when it is under pressure to provide a fiscal stimulus to the slowing economy. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) board approved a transfer, which includes 1.23 trillion rupees as dividend and 526.4 billion rupees from its ...

Bloomberg The firm that’s transforming an archipelago, desert and mountains — an area about the size of Belgium — on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast into a global tourism destination is talking to banks to raise $3.5 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Red Sea Development Co. started discussions with local lenders for a 13 billion-riyal ...

Bloomberg Oil jumped after US President Donald Trump said that China wanted to restart trade talks, potentially easing tensions between the two countries. Futures in New York rose as much as 1.5 percent, snapping the longest run of declines in more than five weeks. Trump’s comments reversed a drop of as much as 2.2 percent that had looked set to ...

Dubai / Emirates Business To improve the ultimate health outcomes for patients and enhance their overall experience at all its facilities, Aster DM Healthcare is setting up Aster Innovation and Research Centre in GCC and India. Aster DM Healthcare is one of the first private healthcare organisations in the UAE to set up a dedicated innovation and research centre. This ...