DUBAI/ Reuters Kuwait has delayed a sovereign bond issue of up to $10 billion until next year after deciding it is in no rush to raise funds overseas, bankers familiar with Kuwaiti debt policy said. Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh said in July the government planned to sell as much as $10 billion of U.S. dollar-denominated conventional and Islamic bonds ...

  Doha / Reuters Qatari banks Masraf Al Rayan and Doha Bank plan to launch the Gulf state’s first exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the end of 2016, a move that should boost capital flows into the local stock market, a bourse official said. The launch of ETFs – portfolios of stocks that track an index – could boost a market ...

  Bloomberg Some of Europe’s largest utilities are choosing to finance renewable energy projects alone instead of involving banks, leading to an unexpected gain in cash flowing into the industry that’s struggling to cope with subsidy cuts. Investment in clean energy in Europe, rose 2 percent to $41.2 billion in the first nine months of this year compared with the ...

  Bloomberg UK government proposals to make companies list their foreign workers would harm the economy because they are “anti-business and dangerously naive,” more than 100 leaders of small and medium-sized businesses said in a letter to the Daily Telegraph newspaper. “The ability to hire both British and non-British people has historically helped business grow by bringing in varied skills ...

  Bloomberg European Union policy makers aren’t attempting to read anything into signals sent by Theresa May and the rest of the U.K. government on Britain’s future relationship with the bloc and are just waiting for an official communication, an EU Commission vice president said. “The European Commission will probably not be interpreting the U.K. government,” Valdis Dombrovskis said in ...

  Stockholm / AFP British-American economist Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom of Finland on Monday won the Nobel Economics Prize for their work on contract theory, the jury said. “This year’s laureates have developed contract theory, a comprehensive framework for analysing many diverse issues in contractual design, like performance-based pay for top executives, deductibles and co-pays in insurance, and the ...

  Bloomberg German chemicals firm Bayer said on Monday it would not introduce genetically modified crops in Europe after its gigantic takeover of US seed and pesticide producer Monsanto. “We aren’t taking over Monsanto to establish GM plants in Europe,” chief executive Werner Baumann told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. “Some people think it might be easier for us than for ...

  Berlin / AFP Booming exports pumped up Germany’s trade surplus in August, as calls grow for Europe’s largest economy to use the cash it brings in to nurture growth. Firms exported 102.3 billion euros ($114.3 billion) of goods in August 2016 adjusting for seasonal and calendar effects, the federal statistics office Destatis said. That was an increase of 5.4 ...

  Istanbul / AFP President Vladimir Putin on Monday said non-OPEC member Russia was ready to work with the cartel in imposing measures to limit oil production, in comments that propelled the price of crude to its highest levels in a year. Eyes have turned to Russia, the world’s top oil producer alongside Saudi Arabia, to see if it will ...

  DUBAI / AFP Two missiles fired from rebel-held territory in Yemen fell short of a US warship patrolling the Red Sea off the coast of the war-torn country, the US navy said on Monday. The USS Mason “detected two inbound missiles” within an hour of each other from around 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) on Sunday, said US Naval Forces ...