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Abu Dhabi / WAM Under the auspices of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the guidance of HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidential Court, Sheikh Zayed Festival 2022-2023 will be launched on November 18 at Al Wathba, Abu Dhabi. The Higher Organising Committee of the Sheikh Zayed ...

The Czech central bank confirmed a preference for keeping borrowing costs stable, defying its new forecast that called for significant monetary tightening. Policy makers left the benchmark rate at 7%, keeping it unchanged for a third meeting after the bank’s new leadership halted a year of rapid hikes. Officials also reaffirmed their intervention policy of preventing excessive koruna swings, which ...

India’s central bank started a pilot program of its digital currency, allowing select banks to use it for settling secondary-market transactions in government securities. Several lots of bonds were traded, with data from Clearing Corp of India showing 7.38% 2027 debt and 7.26% 2032 bonds were among the first to change hands using new form of currency. Nine banks are ...

ING Groep NV said it will buy back as much as €1.5 billion ($1.47 billion) of shares to reward investors, after a mixed third quarter in which profit missed estimates following charges at its Polish business and in accounting for hedges. Net income of the bank reached €979 million in the three months through September compared with analysts’ expectations for ...

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde warned that a “mild recession” is possible but that it wouldn’t be sufficient in itself to stem soaring prices. Speaking a week after the ECB’s second straight 75 basis-point hike in borrowing costs, and as fears mount that the energy crisis will drag down output in the 19-nation euro zone, Lagarde said “we ...

The People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) Governor Yi Gang reaffirmed a pledge to make the yuan exchange rate more flexible, while vowing to improve the monetary policy. The central bank will keep the yuan basically stable at a reasonable equilibrium level, Yi reiterated in a meeting held to study the Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress, according to a statement published by ...

China is working on plans to scrap a system that penalises airlines for bringing virus cases into the country, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign authorities are looking for ways to ease the impact of the Covid Zero policy. The State Council, which oversees China’s bureaucracy, has asked government agencies including the civil aviation regulator to prepare ...

Nestlé, one of the top consumer goods suppliers in Indonesia, will avoid raising prices further after a 5% hike this year began to hurt demand. Faltering sales volume amid higher product prices is happening throughout the consumer goods industry, said PT Nestlé Indonesia President Director Ganesan Ampalavanar. He expects commodity costs to fall in the second half of 2023, which ...

Airline passengers are still happier with service standards now than before the coronavirus crisis, despite many carriers suffering a summer of delays and cancellations linked to staffing shortages. Passenger contentedness has shown only a slight dip, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said, with 80% of people in a recent survey declaring themselves very satisfied or somewhat satisfied, compared with ...

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) opened a bridge connecting a terminal and satellite concourse, part of a wider HK$9 billion ($1.15 billion) upgrade even as a full recovery in air traffic remains far off. “What the airport engineers and practitioners want to make sure is we complete the facilities in advance of the demand coming up,” said Ricky Leung, HKIA’s executive ...