News

  ALGIERS / Reuters Algeria is preparing to speed up the diversification of its oil-reliant economy in the coming year after starting to cut state subsidies to offset a fall in energy earnings, the head of parliament’s finance committee said. In the past, the OPEC member took advantage of high prices for oil and gas, which account for 60 percent ...

  Cairo / Emirates Business The World Bank has announced, during a ceremony to celebrate the release of its 14th Doing Business Report, that Egypt moved up nine places compared to last year. The country now ranks 122, which represents a significant improvement on its previous ranking of 131. The ceremony was attended by Dr. Mohamed Khodeir, the CEO of ...

  Jeddah / Emirates Business JLL, the world’s leading real estate investment and advisory firm, released its Q3 2016 Jeddah Real Estate Market Overview report which assesses the latest trends in the office, residential, retail and hotel sectors. The latest market summary report discusses the opening of two internationally branded hotels — the Movenpick City Star Hotel (228 keys) and ...

  AFP Samsung Electronics on Thursday reported an expected 30 percent profit plunge on the back of a highly damaging recall crisis that hammered the reputation of the world’s largest smartphone maker. The third quarter earnings were announced just hours before the start of an annual shareholder meeting which was set to approve the latest step in a complex generational ...

  Bloomberg Stresses among Singapore’s oil and gas companies are deepening, the head of Southeast Asia’s second-largest lender said, signaling that more firms grappling with the slump in energy prices may face difficulties repaying their debts. “I don’t think the oil and gas sector is in a situation where it is in a recovery mode yet, and continues to be ...

  Bloomberg Profits of China’s industrial corporations are holding up this year thanks to a boost from steel and refining, even as last month’s earnings slowed from a three-year high. Industrial profits in January-September rose 8.4 percent from a year earlier to 4.64 trillion yuan ($685 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday. Earnings last month rose 7.7 percent ...

  Bloomberg New Zealand has overtaken Singapore as the best country in the world to do business, according to the World Bank. Singapore slipped to second in the bank’s 2017 “ Doing Business” report after topping the ranking for a decade. Finland dropped out of the top 10, falling to 13th. Macedonia, which placed 92nd a decade ago, improved two ...

  Bloomberg Nintendo Co.’s plan to get its business back on track with mobile games and a new console is coming up against a hard reality: the core business is getting weaker. Pokemon Go, which gave investors and customers an early indication of the company’s potential to carve out a significant share of the smartphone gaming market, delivered a 12 ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM Abu Dhabi’s non-oil foreign trade through various customs ports was AED84.349 billion, registering an increase of AED59 million compared to the same period last year, according to the General Administration of Customs Abu Dhabi. The value of imports reached AED57.363 billion and exports reached AED17.305 billion, representing a 2.9 percent increase compared to the same ...

  ABYAN/ WAM The first phase of Ju’ar power station in Abyan Governorate, Yemen, has been inaugurated by the UAE as part of its massive humanitarian, relief and development initiative to alleviate the suffering of the people of Yemen. Abyan had been experiencing power outage for more than a year and half as a result of the destruction of the ...