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Bloomberg European energy markets started to feel the impact of the escalating diplomatic row in the Middle East after natural gas prices soared when tankers full of Qatari fuel abruptly changed course. Two ships bound towards Europe veered course, taking them away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal, the transit route for gas into the Mediterranean Sea and a ...

Bloomberg Indian citizens cannot be forced to enroll for a 12-digit unique identity number to be able file tax returns, the country’s top court said in a ruling that may be a hurdle for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to move transactions online. The Supreme Court partially stayed a law that made the Aadhaar card mandatory for filing returns or ...

Bloomberg China’s producer price gains moderated following further easing in commodity prices, signaling weaker overall inflation pressure in the pipeline. Producer price index rose 5.5 percent in May from a year earlier, compared with an estimated 5.6 percent in a Bloomberg survey and 6.4 percent increase in April. Consumer price index climbed 1.5 percent, versus a prior gain of 1.2 ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s economy may be picking up, but consumers aren’t feeling it. After two years of below-par growth, economists and even the government are becoming more positive on the outlook. While it’s not boom time yet, the consensus is that 2017 growth will come in higher than last year’s 2 percent. A large part of that is down to exports: ...

Bloomberg Australia saw off recession fears this week, though the economy remains anemic. The local dollar surged toward its best weekly gain since March, only to run into turbulence when data dump showed a tumble in exports. A flattening yield curve and a sliding stock market also highlighted concerns that the nation’s 26-year streak of recessionless growth is getting weary. ...

Bloomberg The largest real estate buyout of all time is set for its final chapter as Blackstone Group LP moves towards selling San Francisco’s landmark Ferry Building and two other properties. The waterfront icon, with its soaring clock tower modeled on the 12th-century Giralda bell tower in Seville, will go on the sales block in coming weeks, a decade after ...

Bloomberg Of all the things the UK economy needs, more uncertainty isn’t one of them. Prime Minister Theresa May’s loss of her majority in Parliament after an election gamble has muddied the outlook for oncoming Brexit negotiations and the economy. After a campaign largely devoid of economic arguments, the new government faces a slew of policy challenges and threats to ...

DUBAI / Emirates Business The e-commerce industry in the UAE is expected to hit the US$10 billion (AED36.7 billion) mark by the year 2018, regional retailers are in the process of consolidating their online presence in a bid to remain competitive and profitable. With the UAE’s current ecommerce value estimated to be around US$2.5 billion (AED9.2 billion), analysts are optimistic ...

DUBAI / WAM The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention and Jafza, a DP World company, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector in the country. The memorandum was signed at Jafza head office by Dr Amin Hussein Al Amiri, Assistant Under-secretary of Public Health and Licensing Policy at the Ministry and ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The Department of Economic Development’s Competitiveness Office of Abu Dhabi (COAD) held a coordination meeting for the Steering Committee on the ‘Doing Business In the Emirates of Abu Dhabi’ report, which comprises representatives of relevant government entities in Abu Dhabi. The meeting covered the latest updates on the proposed initiatives and reviewed efforts made by competent ...