News

Bloomberg A top European Union official reiterated the bloc’s demand for a permanent exemption from the US’s steel and aluminum tariffs, as a temporary reprieve is set to expire on May 1 and fears mount that escalating trade tensions could threaten the global economy. European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said the EU is in close contact with US authorities ...

Bloomberg European car sales turned in their weakest performance in the first quarter since an industrywide contraction five years ago, as UK consumers’ apprehension over Brexit continued to erode demand in the region’s second-largest market. First-quarter registrations edged up 0.6 percent, according to figures released by the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA. The gain was the slowest since ...

Bloomberg Netflix Inc. used to worry it would alienate customers by raising prices for its streaming service. Not anymore. The company posted its strongest first quarter since going public 16 years ago, despite raising prices for most of its customers over the past several months. Los Gatos, California-based Netflix added 7.41 million users in the period, accord-ing to a statement, ...

Bloomberg The UK economy shows little sign of breaking out of its “pattern of uninspiring growth,” and the first quarter may have been weaker than expected. The first three months of the year may have seen gross domestic product gain as little as 0.2 percent as severe weather cramped growth, a report by the EY Item Club will probably say ...

Bloomberg The acrimonious fight over the future of Xerox Corp looks set to worsen after two of its largest shareholders, activist investor Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason, released a report alleging widespread corporate governance failures in the way the company negotiated its $6.1 billion sale to Fujifilm Holdings Corp. In a letter to Xerox shareholders, Icahn and Deason accused Xerox’s ...

Bloomberg The global growth outlook faces rising threats from trade tensions and mounting debt despite a strengthening and “increasingly broad-based” expansion at the moment, according to a statement from world finance ministers and central bankers. “Risks are broadly balanced in the near term, but remain skewed to the downside beyond the next several quarters,” according to a communique by IMF’s ...

DUBAI / WAM Dubai Statistics Center (DSC) revealed that Dubai’s real gross domestic product (GDP) reached AED 389 billion in 2017 compared to AED 379 billion in 2016. According to DSC, the growth was fuelled by the performance of strategic sectors that accounted for 72.2% of total growth in 2017. The transportation and storage sector was the biggest contributor to ...

DUBAI / WAM Trade between Jebel Ali Freezone (Jafza) and India reached over $3.4 billion in 2017. Latest figures from Jafza show that over 788 Indian companies are trading from the freezone, serving key markets in the region and building on historical ties that date back to 1985 when it first opened. DP World has extensive business interests in India, ...

DUBAI / WAM Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) organised a workshop to review its strategy for 2021. The workshop, which was held under the theme ‘Zayed’s Legacy for a Sustainable Future’ was attended by Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dewa, Executive Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents, Dewa’s experts, and staff. Al Tayer noted that Dewa organises the ...

Dubai / Emirates Business The total value of the 1,156 hospitality and tourism projects in the GCC region has exceeded $147 billion (AED539 billion) in March 2018, according to BNC Network, the largest project intelligence provider in the Mena region. Among the 1,156 hospitality projects, 724 projects worth $78 billion (AED 286 billion) are hotel projects while 140 projects worth ...