Opinion

  Forecasters are far from bullish, but analysts suggest the worst may be over for emerging markets following a rally in commodities and currencies. In its latest ‘World Economic Outlook’ report, the International Monetary Fund revised down its forecasts for global growth to just 3.2 percent this year and 3.5 percent in 2017, citing only a modest pickup in advanced …

  Earlier this month, when Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar and U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter agreed in principle to sign a logistics support agreement (LSA) intended to enhance military ties, many in India wondered if the pact would push the country into an unnecessarily tight embrace with the United States. More importantly, they worried that an increasingly assertive China …

  STEPANAKERT, Nagorno-Karabakh The military commander of this breakaway Armenian republic predicted in an interview here Monday that a fragile cease-fire could collapse within days. By that night, Azerbaijani shelling had killed two Armenian soldiers in a northern border town, amid accusations by each side that the other had violated the truce. The “frozen conflict” here, stalemated for 22 years, …

Saudi Arabia’s ambitious strategy to restructure the Kingdom’s economy is seen as an unprecedented departure from oil dependency to diversification. In recent years, Riyadh has relied on oil revenues for about 90% of its budget. The new economic paradigm shift involves diversification, privatisation of massive state assets — including the energy giant Aramco — tax increases and subsidy cuts. Prince …

  Tim Culpan / David Fickling Companies in both China and the U.S. want to develop driverless cars. Slick videos and flashy powerpoint slides envision a future where humans sit back and relax while their transport pods glide across highways, seamlessly merge into traffic and pull up smoothly at the kerb. Miles Google’s driverless cars have clocked 1.5 million. What …

  On the surface, the concept of a Russian pivot to Asia made sense, particularly greater cooperation between Moscow and Beijing. But, as a pair of fellows from the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin and a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center made clear in separate articles published this month, Russia’s Asia pivot has failed so far …

  The presidents of Ukraine and Belarus, the two countries most affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, used the meltdown’s 30-year anniversary on Tuesday to make political statements. It looks like neither of them — nor Russian President Vladimir Putin — has drawn the right conclusions from the tragedy, which probably hastened the Soviet Union’s demise. Unit 4 of the …

  Britain is asking itself whether quitting the European Union would be good or bad — for Britain. President Barack Obama is advising Britain to stay — presumably because he thinks that would be good for the U.S. But what if Brexit would be good for Britain and the U.S. mainly because it would be good for Europe? I’m led …

The gender pay gap is back in the news — and may become a major issue in the presidential campaign. It seems an open-and-shut case of job discrimination. Women earn only 79 percent of men’s average hourly earnings. Who could favor that? Actually, the comparison is bogus. A more accurate ratio, after adjusting for differences in gender employment patterns, is …

  The Dubai Smart City project is a brainchild of UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It started as a dream, but is now taking a concrete shape given the resolve and dedication demonstrated by Sheikh Mohammed to make the project a success. A small port city four …