Regional News

  Reuters The International Monetary Fund has approved a $723 million loan facility to Jordan in a three-year programme to support economic and financial reforms aimed at lowering public debt and accelerating growth, it said on Wednesday. The IMF said in a statement the first $72.3 million tranche was to be paid immediately, and the remaining amount would be disbursed …

  Reuters Sky Prime Aviation Services has become the latest aviation company in Saudi Arabia to be awarded a national air operator licence under an ongoing liberalisation of the kingdom’s aviation market. The company, which provides private jets, received the licence for chartered flights from Minister of Transport Sulaiman al-Hamdan during a ceremony in Riyadh, according to its Twitter feed. …

  Reuters Iran and Ecuador discussed ways that the two countries can strengthen oil prices as Iran signals it may support joint efforts by exporters to prop up flagging crude. Iran has been boosting output since Western sanctions were eased in January. Tehran refused to join a previous attempt this year by OPEC plus non-members such as Russia to stabilize …

  Reuters Iraq’s prime minister said the country has not yet reached its full oil market share, suggesting his government would not restrain crude output as part of any possible OPEC agreement to lift prices. “And the capping, we are not open to that because Iraq is still below what it should produce,” Haider al-Abadi told reporters, responding to a …

  Reuters Iran is sending positive signals that it may support joint action to prop up the oil market, sources in OPEC and the oil industry said, potentially aiding efforts to revive a global deal on freezing production levels at talks next month. OPEC’s third-largest producer has been boosting output after the lifting of Western sanctions in January. Tehran refused …

Emirates Business In the lead up to the public holidays marking Eid Al Adha in September, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism is looking to visitors from Gulf countries to offset the recent slump in the nation’s tourist numbers. Tourism is a critical source of Turkey’s GDP – the sector generated USD 35.1 billion in revenues in 2015 – …

  Bloomberg Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of the Middle Eastern country, bought a 9.9 percent interest in Empire State Realty Trust, owner of New York’s Empire State Building. The fund purchased 29.6 million newly issued Class A common shares at $21 each, and will have a 9.9 percent economic and voting interest in the real estate investment …

  WAM Two financing agreements, with a value of more than US$ 1 billion, were signed on Tuesday between the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED). Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, the Bahraini Minister of Finance, and Hamad Suleiman Al Omar, Deputy Director-General of the Fund, signed the agreements, which …

  Reuters Egypt plans to end fuel subsidies within three years and is aiming to increase fuel prices to 65 percentof their actual cost during the 2016/17 fiscal year, two government sources said. Struggling to revive its economy after an uprising in 2011 shook investor confidence and drove tourists and foreign investors away, Egypt has been trying to cut spending …

  Bloomberg Oil extended its biggest loss in three weeks before the release of US crude inventory data on Wednesday, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cautioned that any OPEC deal to freeze output may only deepen the global oversupply. October futures fell as much as 1.7 percent in New York after declining for the first time in eight days on …