News

Kuala Lumpur / Bloomberg Malaysia’s palm oil production will slump more than previously forecast as the lingering effects of El Nino curb output in the world’s second-biggest producer, according to Godrej International Ltd.’s Dorab Mistry. Production will drop by 2 million metric tons in the year through September, Mistry said in remarks prepared for a conference on Monday in Beijing. ...

Manila / DPA The Philippines’ stable macroeconomic profile would enable the country to withstand external shocks better than most of its neighbors could, debt watcher Moody’s Investors Service said. In a statement, the government’s Investor Relations Office (IRO) cited a recent Moody’s report which assessed the Philippines’ macroeconomic profile as “Moderate+,” better than the assessment of “Moderate” for China, India, ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg India’s foreign-exchange reserves climbed to a record as the rupee heads for its biggest monthly advance in two years. The currency stockpile rose by $2.54 billion in the week through March 18 to an unprecedented $355.95 billion, a Reserve Bank of India statement showed. That capped a third straight week of increases. The rupee has jumped ...

Kuala Lumpur / DPA 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) will make further announcements on debt reductions in the coming weeks. It has also fully settled a 700 million ringgit (US$173.57 million) loan based on the proceeds from the sale of Edra Global Energy Bhd. On Saturday, 1MDB president and chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy said the sale of Edra had ...

Lahore / Agencies At least 69 people were killed and more than 300 injured when an apparent suicide bomb ripped through the parking lot of a crowded park in the Pakistani city of Lahore where Christians were celebrating Easter on Sunday, officials said. Dozens of ambulances raced to the park, situated near the centre of the city of around 8 ...

Dubai / EMIRATES BUSINESS As part of its commitment to Dubai’s smart city vision, Dubai Trade, the premier cross-border trade facilitator, partnered with Nakheel to offer its Rosoom online payment services to the developer’s 45,000 customers. The partnership allows Nakheel customers to use ‘Rosoom’ as a convenient, online payment system to pay service charges for owner associations, community management and ...

Abu Dhabi / EMIRATES BUSINESS Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) announced on Sunday that it has distributed the first cash dividends on behalf of one of its listed companies through distributing the dividends of the shareholders of the Union National Bank (UNB) on the Bank’s behalf. Thus, the Union National Bank became the first listed company in the United Arab ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, on Sunday met Frank Mollen, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UAE. The meeting was attended by Lucille Merks, Deputy Head of Mission at the Netherlands Embassy, and Tareq Al-Marzouqi, Director of Government Communication, Minister of Economy. During the meeting, they discussed cooperation between the ...

ALKESH SHARMA / EMIRATES BUSINESS Enthused by the huge capital inflow and enhanced shopper expenditure on mobile devices, software and related services, the annual spending on mobility across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) region is expected to reach a whopping $185 billion by 2019. This constitutes a 10.2 percent share of worldwide enterprises and individual consumer spending that ...

RITIKA SHARMA EMIRATES BUSINESS Mashreq, one of UAE’s leading financial institutions, was selected ‘Best Private Bank for Super Affluent Clients in the UAE in the prestigious Euromoney’s 13th annual private banking survey for 2016. “Awarding Mashreq with the prestigious title of ‘Best Private Bank for Super Affluent Clients in the UAE’ reflects our position as a key player in the ...