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Bloomberg Thailand is now so popular for holidays that almost 35 million foreign tourists — equivalent to half the country’s population — are expected this year. As the influx gets harder to manage, the government is shifting strategy. It’s now targeting a minimum increase in tourism revenue of about 5 percent annually instead of a particular number of visitors, Tourism ...

Bloomberg Singapore home sales fell 21 percent in June from the previous month as fewer new projects were launched in the city-state. Developers sold 820 units last month, compared with a revised 1,039 in May, according to Urban Redevelopment Authority data. A total of 159 units were offered, down from 370 in May, the data showed. Developer sales have fallen ...

Bloomberg Qualcomm Inc. lost a court bid to stall European Union regulators from imposing daily fines of 580,000 euros ($664,216) for failing to supply information for antitrust probes into the chip company’s sales tactics. San Diego-based Qualcomm can’t continue to refuse answering regulators’ questions because it didn’t show its business or financial health was at risk, EU General Court President ...

Bloomberg BHP Billiton Ltd.’s plan to enter the potash market with a contentious $13 billion project in Canada is adding to challenges facing the incoming chairman of the world biggest mining company. Ken MacKenzie, a 53-year-old board member who takes up the role in September, currently is on a global tour to meet investors in the wake of an activist ...

Bloomberg Hedge funds and high-speed traders have been fighting for years to level the playing field with banks on derivatives trading. They just won a round in Europe. The European Securities and Markets Authority said earlier this month that trading platforms should ensure access to a broad array of firms and warned against discriminatory policies that would favor some traders ...

Bloomberg The US labor market was robust enough last month to draw more Americans off the sidelines and into the workforce. The same trend may also be keeping wage gains subdued. While payrolls grew by more than analysts forecast and the unemployment rate barely ticked up from a 16-year low, worker pay rose a less-than-expected 2.5 percent in June from ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Abu Dhabi has been named the second-best city in the world to live, work and do business in, overtaking both London and Paris and moving up two places since the last Ipsos City Index. More than 18,000 people, aged between 16 and 64, in 26 countries worldwide were interviewed for the Index, with New York maintaining ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE equity markets on Sunday continued their bullish trend which started last week, with the positive mood prevailing over all sectors led by the property market which posted robust growth in the run-up towards the announcement of the 2017 H1 financial results by leading companies. With the market capitalisation of trading companies gaining AED4.1 billion, ...

WASHINGTON / WAM The UAE is successfully adjusting to the new ‘lower-for-longer’ oil environment, and the government’s economic initiatives have been broadly in line with global and regional trends, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) study has affirmed. The study, published by the IMF on its website, commends the progress made by the UAE over the past years to ‘strengthen its ...

Dubai / WAM The Ministry of Finance (MoF), signed a final agreement for the avoidance of double taxation with the Republic of Cameroon at the Ministry’s premises in Dubai on Sunday. The agreement comes in line with the ministry’s strategy to strengthen bilateral trade and economic relations between the two countries, in order to expand its network of international relations ...