Bloomberg The Biden administration looks to launch a global infrastructure financing program, intended to counter China’s Belt and Road initiative, with between five and 10 flagship projects announced as soon as January, a senior US official said. The “Build Back Better World” program will look to counter Chinese influence by offering funding for projects with higher labour standards, a focus ...

Bloomberg Countries looking to perk up their economies when interest rates are already at rock bottom might learn something from Germany. Last year’s surprise value-added tax cut by the government in Berlin unleashed about 34 billion euros ($39.4 billion) of household spending while only resulting in about 7 billion euros of lost budget revenue, a working paper published by the ...

Bloomberg Norway’s new government is proposing to cut electricity charges to protect households from the effects of the energy crisis, while raising taxes on the wealthy, as it makes changes to a 2022 budget drafted by its predecessors. The Labour-Center minority coalition’s proposal includes a new, lower electricity tax rate for the winter months, it said. The budget, which the ...

Bloomberg The US’s decision to remove tariffs on steel and aluminum from the European Union (EU) in a weekend deal with the bloc will help slow inflation for American consumers, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said. Prices paid by US shoppers rise 5.4% in September, matching the fastest pace of increase since 2008. Unprecedented shipping challenges due in part to the Covid-19 ...

Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp. shares surged as much as 10% after the company said it would buy back as much as 1 trillion yen ($8.8 billion) of its own stock, reverting to a strategy that founder Masayoshi Son has used in the past to benefit investors. The Tokyo-based company made the announcement as it reported financial results for the September ...

Bloomberg Veteran investor Mark Mobius has allocated almost half of his emerging-markets fund to India and Taiwan to help offset a slide in China shares that has dragged down returns from developing nations as a whole. “India is on a 50-year rally,” even if there are short bouts of bear markets, Mobius said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “India ...

DUBAI / WAM The 100 Million Meals campaign, the largest of its kind in the region to provide food to more than 30 countries in the Arab world, Africa, Asia, Europe and South America, has successfully distributed 10,868,400 meals in the UAE, in collaboration with the UAE Food Bank. A total of 362,280 beneficiaries in the UAE, made up of ...

SHARJAH / WAM The real estate sector in the emirate of Sharjah has shown significant growth during Q3 2021, as the monetary value of real estate transactions amounted to AED5.7 billion by the end of September, through 16,781 transactions, according to a report issued by the Sharjah Real Estate Registration Department. These numbers marked a growth rate of 22.7 percent ...

ADDIS ABABA / WAM The UAE, through the Emirates Red Crescent (ERC), provided relief aid to people affected by the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia, including 50 tonnes of food, health supplies and children’s food supplements, benefitting thousands of displaced families in several provinces. The aid was sent to support Ethiopian families affected by the events taking place in the country, ...

MANAMA / WAM Investcorp, a Bahrain-based asset manager which counts Mubadala Investment Company as its biggest shareholder, announced that it has completed the acquisition of ten UK industrial assets, comprising c. 660,000 sq ft, via four transactions for a combined purchase price of €56.7 million. Since launching its European real estate business in 2017, Investcorp has invested approximately €1 billion ...