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RIYADH / Reuters Major Saudi Arabian retailer Jarir Marketing Co expects single-digit growth in sales in 2018, after a double-digit pace this year as it took market share from smaller rivals, its chairman said. Government regulations pushing retailers of electronics to hire Saudi citizens instead of less costly foreigners hurt smaller companies that were less able to absorb the financial ...

Bloomberg S&P Global Ratings lowered Bahrain’s long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings to ‘B+’ from ‘BB-’, prompting Bahrain’s central bank to reaffirm the country’s currency peg to the US dollar. S&P Global Ratings said the rating cut was due to weak external liquidity and increasing financial risk due to more limited access to international capital markets. The Central ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration, rebuffing oil industry demands for broad changes to the US biofuel mandate, largely maintained the status quo in setting final quotas for how much refiners must blend into gasoline and diesel. But the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision drew only tepid applause from Iowa politicians, Midwest corn farmers and producers of soy-based biodiesel, who say the targets ...

Dubai / WAM The combined value of the 11,755 active construction projects in the UAE has exceeded $818.2 billion (around AED3 trillion) in November 2017, according to latest UAE Construction Analytics report issued by BNC Network, the largest and most comprehensive project research and intelligence provider in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This makes the UAE, which ...

DUBAI / WAM Chemical industry in Arabian Gulf countries registered $77 billion in revenues in 2016, three percent less than the previous year due to fluctuation in international oil prices, an official said. Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), quoted Dr Abdulwahab Al-Sadoun, Secretary General of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association, as saying chemical industries in the GCC contributed around $43.8 ...

WASHINGTON / WAM US companies were the big winners at the 2017 Dubai Airshow as UAE customers placed more than $44 billion in new orders for commercial aircraft and defence- related equipment and services, according to a statement posted on the website of the UAE Embassy in Washington. “US companies remain the preferred supplier for UAE commercial and military aviation ...

Dubai / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, decorated forty-six Emirati philanthropists, led by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, as part of the UAE Pioneers Award, highlighting the remarkable ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM Based on the vision of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan to achieve the highest possible levels of social welfare and economic wellbeing for UAE citizens, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, who is also the Chairman ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Abu Dhabi trade in planes and spacecraft, including parts thereof, has amounted to AED9.3 billion during the first nine months of this year, according to figures by the Statistics Centre-Abu Dhabi, on the emirate’s non-oil trade. The stated value doesn’t include the deals made by the emirate and registered by other ports of exit, including sea, ...

London / WAM His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, inaugurated the new UAE Embassy in London, United Kingdom, UK. The ceremony began with the raising of the UAE flag and was followed by the national anthems of both countries. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed and Alistair Burt, the UK’s Minister of State ...