Regional News

  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 …

  Bloomberg Egypt’s urban consumer prices rose the fastest in eight years in November, driven by a 21.5 percent increase in food costs after the government floated the currency and raised fuel prices. Annual urban inflation accelerated to 19.4 percent, while monthly inflation climbed to 4.8 percent, according to the state-run statistics agency CAPMAS. The annual rate was the highest …

  Cairo/ AFP Egypt has an ambitious three-year reform plan that, with foreign help, can revive its struggling economy, the minister of international cooperation said. In an interview, Sahar Nasr said the “three-year strategy” will lead to a return of investments, boost industrial production and create jobs. It comes as Egypt faces not only falling growth and a currency crisis …

  Bloomberg Oman, the largest Arab oil producer that’s not an OPEC member, plans to sell between $1.5 billion to $2 billion of bonds internationally in 2017 to plug a deficit caused by low crude prices. “There’s an appetite still and I think even when interest rates are raised there will still be appetite,” Ali Hamdan Al-Raisi, vice president for …

Bloomberg Egypt’s net foreign reserves rose to the highest level in more than five years in November, as the country started receiving money from the International Monetary Fund and global lenders. Reserves reached $23.1 billion, up from $19 billion in October, according to data posted on the central bank’s website. Egypt got the first $2.75 billion installment of a $12 …

Reuters GFH Financial Group hopes to largely complete the acquisition of Bahrain’s Bank Al Khair in the first quarter of next year and is at an advanced stage of exploring a merger with another Bahraini bank, its chief executive said on Tuesday. “The recent merger we announced was Bank Al Khair – we hope during the first quarter of 2017 …