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Bloomberg Britain recorded its smallest budget deficit for any December in 17 years as value-added tax receipts reached a record and the Treasury received a bumper credit from the European Union. Net borrowing narrowed to 2.6 billion pounds ($3.6 billion), well below the median forecast of economists, from 5.1 billion pounds a year earlier, figures showed. It left the shortfall ...

Bloomberg German investor confidence rose to an eight-month high in January, setting an optimistic tone for Europe’s largest economy in 2018. The ZEW Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim said that its index of investor expectations increased to 20.4 from 17.4 in December. Economists in a Bloomberg survey predicted a gain to 17.7. Germany’s economy has been enjoying a ...

Bloomberg Netflix Inc. surged in late trading after a blow-out quarter, vaulting past $100 billion in market value for the first time to put the video service on a lofty perch with the likes of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. The world’s largest online TV network reported its strongest year of subscriber growth to date. Netflix added 24 ...

BEIJING / Reuters China is pulling in ships from all over to avoid a natural gas supply squeeze ahead of another cold snap and as the world’s most populous nation prepares for Spring Festival celebrations. Fuel demand in January and February typically slows as temperatures improve compared with the busiest month, December, but data suggests this year could buck the ...

Bloomberg The global oil industry’s backlog of big drilling projects is starting to shrink as prices improve. From production vessels tapping Brazil’s deep-water reserves to pipes connecting rigs to underwater wells in China, the number of ventures delayed since the oil crash that finally got approval to get off the ground totaled 18 last year, according to a report by ...

Bloomberg Scraping the bottom of the oil barrel for cheap fuel may be turning into a multi-billion-dollar headache for India’s largest crude refiner. The South Asian nation’s battle against pollution has left Indian Oil Corp. searching for alternative markets to sell petroleum coke, the cheapest and dirtiest among the oil products. A host of new limits on the fuel’s use ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM More than $15 billion worth of projects and funding was announced at the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) and its co-located events, the International Water Summit and EcoWASTE Exhibition, which took place during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2018, hosted by Masdar. The deals, which combined a number of local, regional and international agreements, strengthen the UAE’s ...

DUBAI / WAM A twenty-one percent increase in Chinese arrivals to the GCC is expected by 2021, rising to 2.5 million visitors annually, according to data released ahead of Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2018, which takes place at the Dubai World Trade Centre in April. Published by Colliers International, the data predicts Saudi will experience the highest proportionate increase in ...

DUBAI / Agencies Dubai-based ports operator DP World and India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), a quasi sovereign wealth fund, said on Monday they had created a fund to invest up to $3 billion of equity in the transport and logistics sectors in India. The money will target acquiring assets and developing projects in sea and river ports, freight ...

Bloomberg Abu Dhabi’s government oil producer received bids in the fourth quarter from international energy companies seeking stakes in offshore fields that pump about 25 percent of the Persian Gulf emirate’s crude. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. is reviewing commercial bids from the companies it will choose from to help develop the deposits in a new joint venture, Adnoc said ...