Regional News

  Bloomberg Russia’s finance minister is counting himself among the skeptics of OPEC’s agreement to cut production, if only to beat back efforts to raid a windfall as oil rallies. “Improvements in oil prices, in our view, aren’t structural in character,” Anton Siluanov told reporters in Moscow. “Rather, it’s a reaction to the limits on oil output adopted by OPEC ...

  CAIRO / Reuters Edita Food Industries, one of Egypt’s largest snack food producers, said on Wednesday it was raising prices by between 20 and 50 percent amid higher input costs due to the drop in the value of the Egyptian pound last month. Inflation surged to an eight-year high of 19.4 percent in November, propelled by a steep depreciation ...

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia has hired consultants to advise on plans to create top global companies in industries from petrochemicals to telecommunications as it seeks to bolster its economy and reputation, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The kingdom has identified about five companies — including Saudi Arabian Oil Co., Saudi Basic Industries Corp. and Saudi Telecom Co. ...

  Tehran / AFP Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday ordered the country’s scientists to start work on nuclear-powered ships in response to the expected renewal of sanctions by the United States. In letters read out on state television, Rouhani criticised the US move as a breach of last year’s nuclear accord and told Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation to start work ...

  Bloomberg Turkey’s economy unexpectedly shrank in the third quarter, led by a slump in consumption, in the most significant sign yet that July’s failed coup and the political turmoil it provoked are weighing on confidence. It’s the first time in seven years that Turkey has announced a contraction. The lira weakened. Gross domestic product shrank an annual 1.8 percent ...

  Bloomberg Bill Gates and more than a dozen of the world’s wealthiest individuals revealed a new $1 billion investment fund to foster major advances in clean energy production. Dubbed Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the 20-year fund is backed by a mix of technology luminaries and heavyweights from the energy industry. The goal is to pump money into risky, long-term energy ...

  Bloomberg Glencore Plc and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund are using 2.8 billion euros ($3 billion) in equity and $7.8 billion in financing from a bank consortium led by Italian lender Intesa Sanpaolo SpA to buy their stake in Russian oil company Rosneft PJSC. The financing will be backed by the two companies’ shares in the oil group, Rosneft said ...

  TUNIS / Reuters Tunisia’s parliament approved a 32.7 billion dinar ($14.1 billion) budget for next year, including deficit cutting measures that had been watered down under pressure from unions. From a total of 217 lawmakers in parliament, 122 voted in favour of the finance bill. Earlier this week parliament struck out two key revenue raising measures and the government ...

  Kuwait City / AFP Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah opened the new parliament on Sunday by declaring that a reduction in public spending is “inevitable” in the face of weak oil prices. The emir said the sharp drop in oil revenues has resulted in a huge budget deficit and “there is no other option but to take effective ...

  MOSCOW / AP Commodities giant Glencore and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund have together acquired a 19.5 percent stake in Russia’s top state-controlled oil company, Rosneft, in a deal worth 10.5 billion euros ($11.3 billion), officials said. The long-planned sale is part of the Russian government’s efforts to sell some state assets to help balance the budget amid a two-year ...