Bloomberg Iraq, OPEC’s second-biggest producer, will increase crude exports by about 5 percent in the next few days after an agreement to resume shipments from three oil fields in Kirkuk. Shipments will increase to about 150,000 barrels a day as exports resume from the Baba Gorgor, Jambour and Khabbaz fields, Fouad Hussein, a member of the oil and energy ...
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Money managers switch to stocks as Israel bond run slows
Bloomberg Israel’s largest money managers are turning to the country’s stock market as they bet a five-month corporate bond rally is coming to an end. Equities have started to erase the steepest discount to MSCI World peers in 18 months, while the Tel-Bond 20 index is on course for its worst month since January, according to data compiled by ...
Read More »Tunisia’s new cabinet keeps old security chiefs in place
Bloomberg Tunisia’s prime minister-designate unveiled a new cabinet that keeps holdovers from the old government in key security posts while bringing in new faces to try to revive the economy. Youssef Al-Shahed’s appointments followed more than two weeks of consultations since parliament dismissed his predecessor, Habib Essid, over the country’s weak economic performance. Shahed retained seven key ministers from ...
Read More »Oil gives pause to Kazakhstan’s wealth fund on asset sales
Bloomberg The crash in crude prices may have nudged Kazakhstan toward its biggest wave of privatization in history, but its wealth fund is now willing to bide its time for a recovery in oil to take hold. Samruk-Kazyna, with assets worth over $64 billion, is in no hurry to kickstart the process, waiting until oil prices recover and Russia ...
Read More »China’s diesel exports rise to record as flooding damps demand
Beijing / Bloomberg China’s diesel exports rebounded to a record in July as severe flooding in some parts of the country curbed domestic fuel demand. The world’s largest energy consumer exported 1.53 million tons of diesel last month, a 39 percent jump from June and beating the previous record in May, according to data posted Sunday on the website ...
Read More »â€˜Rural India to become the next driver of e-commerce’
New Delhi / Bloomberg A surge in internet connectivity in rural India, home to some 870 million people, will lead much of the nation’s e-commerce activity to move into regional areas during the rest of the decade, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group. The number of web-connected rural consumers will more than double to 315 million by ...
Read More »Vanke profit gains on strong sales amid ownership fight
Beijing / Bloomberg China Vanke Co., the developer at the center of a battle for control, posted a 10 percent increase in first-half profit as a home-market recovery boosted sales, helping offset uncertainties over the company’s future because of the ownership struggle. Net income at the nation’s largest residential developer climbed to 5.35 billion yuan ($804 million), or 0.48 ...
Read More »Philippine president threatens to take country out of UN
Manila / AFP President Rodrigo Duterte threatened on Sunday to withdraw the Philippines from the United Nations, as he launched another profanity-laced tirade against the organisation for criticising his bloody war on crime. More than 1,500 people have been killed since Duterte took office and immediately began his law-and-order crackdown, according to police statistics, triggering fierce criticism from the ...
Read More »Japan protests as China ships sail near disputed islands
Tokyo /Â AFP Tokyo protested to Beijing on Sunday after Chinese coast guard ships sailed into territorial waters surrounding disputed islands in the East China Sea, Japan said. Four Chinese vessels entered the waters surrounding islets, called the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, around 10.00 am local time (0100 GMT), according to Japan Coast Guard. They left ...
Read More »Protest over election ban on Hong Kong activists
Hong Kong / AFP Hundreds of protesters marched through Hong Kong’s main streets on Sunday against a ban on pro-independence candidates from running in an upcoming legislative election, as fears grow over Beijing’s influence in the city. In the last month five candidates who advocate a split from China were rejected from standing in the September 4 vote, with officials ...
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