Bloomberg As cement sets and hardens, it binds materials together, creating a stronger whole. LafargeHolcim’s first yearly results as a combined company gave little indication that their union has done similar. The Franco-Swiss cement producer, the world’s biggest, booked a 3-billion Swiss franc ($3.1-billion) impairment in the fourth quarter, attributed mostly to Brazil, Russia, Iraq and China. As a consequence, ...

The Obama administration is moving towards what could be a dangerous showdown with China over the South China Sea. The confrontation has been building for the past three years, as China has constructed artificial islands off its southern coast and installed missiles and radar in disputed waters, despite US warnings. It could come to a head this spring, when an ...

The Bank of Korea is planning for a cashless society by 2020. Swedes are making the shift. I am intrigued but also troubled. There’s a lot to like about the idea of a cashless society, starting with its effect on crime. The payoff to mugging people or snatching their bags has already declined dramatically, simply because fewer and fewer people ...

A host of risks — including turbulence in financial markets, slower growth in economies like China, weak growth in other developed countries and prospects of Brexit — cast shadow on British economy, forcing it to take more austerity measures. With such measures in place, it is quite interesting to see where the additional cuts would be made. Presenting the annual ...

The U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest economic projections contain an encoded message crucial to understanding the central bank’s policies: Inflation has been stuck below the Fed’s target in part because officials don’t actually want to get it back up. It’s important to recognize that the Summary of Economic Projections, released four times a year, does not consist of forecasts about the ...

Asia’s major economies marked International Women’s Day 2016 with relatively little fanfare, despite the demographic imperative that confronts the aging populations of China, Japan and South Korea. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian corporate boardrooms have low gender diversity despite moves such as Japan’s “Womenomics,” although the bank blames societal issues rather than deliberate hiring decisions. In its ...

The value of the Canadian dollar and the price of oil, one of the nation’s top exports, have both tumbled to near record lows. But those details — and the apparent demise of the Keystone XL pipeline — don’t begin to tell the story of what lies ahead for the economy of Canada, America’s second-largest trading partner. Last year, Canadian ...

On Tuesday, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan Nicholas Haysom briefed the UN Security Council on Afghanistan. He launched his remarks by noting that the country is “being as severely tested as it was in 2015.” Afghanistan, Haysom said, faces several challenges: “a contracting economy characterized by low growth and high unemployment; an intensifying insurgency regarded by some as ...

DUBAI / Emirates Business Amanat Holdings PJSC, the region’s largest integrated healthcare and education company, has announced its net profit of AED50.6 million for the period since inception on November 17, 2014 to December 31 last year. Amanat reported total income of AED89.6 million, comprised mainly of AED57.3 million of gain and dividends from Al Noor Hospitals Group and an ...

DUBAI / Emirates Business Mashreq Private Banking has announced its partnership with Art Dubai Modern for the third year in a row. Mashreq is associated with Art Dubai Modern in various aspects since 2014. Ayman Abuhabsa, Head of Private Banking, Mashreq commented, said, “We are thrilled to be part of the continued success of Art Dubai Modern year after year ...