Bloomberg Mexico’s central bank has the ‘highest hope’ of keeping its rate decisions to scheduled meetings, Governor Agustin Carstens said, quieting market speculation of another surprise increase in borrowing costs. One-year interest-rate swaps fell. The recent peso depreciation has been driven by fundamentals and not by an attack from speculators like the one that took place in February when ...

  New YorK / AFP Citigroup and affiliates were fined $425 million over charges they attempted to manipulate Libor and other leading financial benchmarks, US regulators have announced. Citigroup, which was supposed to submit data on actual transactions to help set the internationally-used benchmarks, instead gave false information to benefit its trading positions, according to the cases. In one of ...

  Reuters GFH Financial Group plans to list its Bahraini subsidiary Khaleeji Commercial Bank in Dubai and acquire a financial services company to increase shareholder value, GFH’s chief executive said. “We are hoping to list Khaleeji Commercial Bank on DFM (Dubai Financial Market), which will help increase the value of the bank, and to offer fee-based financial services, helping to ...

  EMIRATES BUSINESS IDB Infrastructure Fund II, sponsored by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and other institutional investors, has joined hands with AVIVO Group, one of the largest healthcare networks in the GCC, with 32 healthcare facilities. The IDB Infrastructure Fund II, with commitments of $750 million, invests in infrastructure opportunities across Asia, Middle East and Africa and it has ...

  Washington / AFP Struggling to make ends meet, millions of Americans resort to so-called payday loans whose costly charges can devastate personal finances. For the first time, the US government plans to implement a new rule that could limit the short-term, small-dollar loans that typically are due to be repaid on the borrower’s next payday. A proposed regulation is ...

  AP Real estate agents are flummoxed by a housing market that’s still trying to recover a decade after its historic collapse. Agents are getting higher commissions as home prices rise, but have fewer houses to list because homeowners are reluctant to sell. Many owners don’t want to put their homes on the market until they have more equity to ...

  Bloomberg Taiwan’s home prices, which have fallen in the past year ending a decade-long bull run, are poised to extend declines as the economy contracts and a new presidential administration focuses on equitable wealth distribution. Home values in Taiwan dropped 1.2 percent and transactions declined 15.5 percent since the first quarter of 2015, according to data from the Interior ...

  Daqing / AFP Once the pride of Communist rulers and now hit by a global glut and slowing domestic growth, China’s largest oilfield epitomizes Beijing’s reluctance to cut jobs at loss-making state-run operations. Thousands of oil pumps painted black, yellow and red stretch to the horizon in Daqing, which has produced more than two billion tonnes of the black ...

  Moscow / AFP Russia’s ubiquitous sheet metal sheds — where tyres are changed, furniture repaired and fish smoked — have become bustling hubs of a shadow economy essential to the livelihoods of the country’s crisis-stricken population. Built in the 1960s and 1970s close to Soviet-era apartment blocks, the clusters of boxy garages today house much more than cars — everything ...

  Our Correspondent/ Emirates Business Myra Properties, a leading developer of high-end luxury properties across the GCC, has recently announced the launch of its latest luxury apartment project in Dubai. This project is aimed at the growing community of young millennial expatriates, who are increasingly relocating to Dubai for employment or wishing to invest in lucrative properties in the region. ...