The second-quarter gross domestic product data released recently showed a robust 4.1 percent increase. It wasn’t “historic,” as President Donald Trump proclaimed, but it was undoubtedly solid. With midterm elections a little more than three months away, it is no surprise the release became fodder in our endless national political debate. Lots of misinformation and questionable claims were proffered. But ...

Judging from commentary in markets late last week, an additional factor now features in the calculus of some Fed watchers as they look forward to this week’s two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting: how policy makers will respond to President Donald Trump’s tweets suggesting that the central bank refrain from raising interest rates and risk ”taking away our big competitive ...

DUBAI / WAM The Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai has issued the first licence in Chinese and Arabic to one of the investors from the Republic of China. This is in line with the latest strategic partnerships betw-een the UAE and China to strengthen bilateral cooperation in economic, investment and trading sectors. The issuance of the Chinese licence ...

Bloomberg Crude rose by the most in a month as traders focus on supply risks from Canada to the Middle East. Futures in New York advanced as much as 2.5 percent on Monday amid speculation that a Canadian oil-sands facility that supplies US refineries won’t return to full production as quickly as expected. Threats elsewhere included an imminent labour strike ...

DUBAI / WAM Commercial Bank International (CBI) announced financial results for first six mon- ths of 2018, with net profit up 55 percent to AED81 million, compared to AED52 million in H1 2017. Operating profits were up 6 percent to AED194 million, from AED183 million during same period last year. Mohammad Sultan Al Qadi, Chairman of CBI, said, “The strong ...

JAKARTA / WAM The Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology (ESMA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indonesia’s National Standardisation Agency (BSN) and National Accreditation Committee (KAN) to officially recognise halal certificates issued by KAN. ESMA Director-General Abdulla Abdul Qader Al Maeeni told Salaam Gateway, which is a joint effort between Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre and Thomson ...

Bloomberg Pakistan’s Imran Khan is close to forming a coalition government and has decided his cabinet, which will name former Engro Corp. head Asad Umar as finance minister. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or Movement for Justice, has “near” 135 seats right now, Arif Alvi, a senior PTI leader and lawmaker-elect, said. The PTI is currently negotiating with smaller parties, including the ...

Bloomberg The Spanish government approved emergency measures to handle a significant increase in the number of migrants reaching the country’s southern beaches. The administration will set up centres to process and identify migrants’ needs in their first few days, the prime minister’s office in Madrid said. The government said it expects the trend to continue for the rest of the ...

Bloomberg Security has been tightened across India’s northeastern state of Assam as millions discovered they were at risk of deportation following the release of the federal government’s controversial citizens list. About four million people saw their names were missing from the final draft of the list that was published by the Registrar General of India on Monday. Activists say the ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said he had a nasty and contentious business relationship with Robert Mueller, and he called on the special counsel to disclose such “conflicts of interest” in one of his most direct attacks on the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump didn’t say what those conflicts were, but he said he turned down Mueller ...