Bloomberg UK retail sales rebounded more than expected in April as the spring weather lured shoppers into stores. Sales climbed 1.6 percent from March, compared with a median estimate of a 0.9 percent gain in a Bloomberg survey. The surge was led by fuel, household goods and clothing, according to data from the Office for National Statistics in London. After ...

Bloomberg It’s hard to serve a Big Mac without the bun. A truckers’ strike in Brazil over higher diesel prices has left at least one McDonald’s in Copacabana struggling to serve its customers. The last perishable food delivery received at the restaurant was May 18, manager Yladian Barbosa told O Globo newspaper. On Wednesday alone, that meant a loss of ...

Bloomberg Samsonite International SA, the world’s largest branded-luggage maker, tumbled the most since 2012 after short-seller Blue Orca Capital questioned the company’s accounting and corporate governance. Samsonite concealed slowing growth with debt-funded acquisitions and inflated profit margins with dubious accounting linked to its takeovers, Blue Orca, founded by former Glaucus Research Group research director Soren Aandahl, alleged in a report. ...

DUBAI / WAM The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) denied on Wednesday the news of what is being circulated about an attempt to hijack a plane belongs to the national carrier flydubai in Iranian airspace. Saif Al Suwaidi, Director General of the GCAA, emphasised that flight No. FZ301, which was heading from Dubai to Kabul, has returned to Dubai ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) on Wedne-sday announced that it had financed 11 development projects worth AED1.4 billion in 2017, benefitting nine developing countries. Totalling more than AED646 million, four of the 11 projects were allocated as concessionary loans to Egypt, Antigua and Barbuda and the Maldives, whereas the remaining seven projects were funded ...

FUJAIRAH / WAM Oil product stocks in the Middle East’s key oil hub of Fujairah rose 11.1 percent in the week to Monday, with inventory levels up across all reported categories. Total oil product stocks in Fujairah were 19.379 million barrels, up 1.93 million barrels from a week earlier, according to data from the Fujairah Energy Data Committee, or FEDCom. ...

DUBAI / Emirates Business Etisalat Digital on Wednesday announced that it has signed strategic partnerships with four scale-ups as part of the ‘Dubai Future Accelerators Program,’ the world’s largest government supported accelerator. The 4th cohort of the ‘Dubai Future Accelerators’, launched in March this year with the participation of Etisalat Digital and other government bodies and in cooperation with the ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump said a trade agreement with China may be “too hard to get done” and that the world’s two largest economies may need to change their framework for a deal. “Our Trade Deal with China is moving along nicely, but in the end we will probably have to use a different structure in that this will ...

DUBAI / WAM The Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection (CCCP) sector in the Department of Economic Development saw a 30 percent increase in consumer complaint during the first quarter (Q1) of 2018 compared to the same period last year as more and more consumers continued to come forward and raise their concerns with the authorities as well as merchants. CCCP, ...

DUBAI / WAM Dubai Airports, in partnership with Samsung Electronics and AirportLabs has achieved another first in the region by rolling out an advanced cloud-based Flight Information Display solution along with System on Chip (SoC) display technology at Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC) airports. The upgrade is the result of an initiative undertaken by Dubai Airports in ...