April, 2016

• 25 April

  Indonesia OPEC guv: No urgency to freeze output with oil at $45

  

    ABU DHABI / Reuters Indonesia’s governor to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said on Monday that oil at $45 a barrel was “not bad” and that there would be no urgency to freeze output if crude remained at that price. Despite failure to reach a deal to curb oil output and support prices at an April 17 ...

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• 25 April

  CBQ Q1 net profit falls 36.3 %

    Reuters Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ), the Gulf Arab state’s third-largest lender by assets, reported a 36.3 percent fall in net profit attributable to equity holders, below analysts’ forecast. The bank earned a net profit attributable to equity holders of 288.1 million riyals ($79.1 million) in the three months to Mar. 31, it said in a statement. That compares ...

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• 25 April

  Pound rises to one-month high as EU ‘remain’ camp gains momentum

  

    Bloomberg The pound rose to its strongest level in more than a month versus the dollar amid signs the “remain” camp is pulling ahead in the campaign over Britain’s membership of the European Union. Sterling touched a six-week high against the euro, after posting its longest winning streak in 10 months through Friday, as U.S. President Barack Obama backed ...

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• 25 April

  German business confidence unexpectedly weakens in April

    Bloomberg German business confidence unexpectedly deteriorated in the latest sign that Europe’s largest economy is losing some of its pace. The Munich-based Ifo institute’s business climate index fell to 106.6 in April from 106.7 the previous month. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for an increase to 107.1. The Bundesbank said last week that it ...

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• 25 April

  Norway again boosts withdrawals from world’s biggest wealth fund

    Bloomberg Norway increased its withdrawals from the nation’s wealth fund again in March, running ahead of estimates made by the central bank just two months ago. The government withdrew 7.4 billion kroner ($898 million), according to monthly data published by Norwegian Government Agency for Financial Management. That’s up from 6.7 billion kroner in each of the first two months ...

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• 25 April

  Shrinking short sale that’s fuelling Brazil’s ‘real’ rally

    Bloomberg The currency market is becoming more convinced that the Brazilian real’s world-beating rally this year is far from over. Foreign investors have reduced their bearish bets against the currency in the futures market by 33 percent since the end of 2015 to $15 billion, the least since November 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and BM&FBovespa SA, ...

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• 25 April

  Executives still hungry for deals after 2015’s record, EY says

    bloomberg Believe it or not, companies still want to make deals. Half of executives expect to pursue acquisitions in the next 12 months and 40 percent aim to boost sales through partnerships, according to EY’s Global Capital Conference Barometer, a survey of more than 1,700 executives in 45 countries. While that’s down from the 59 percent of participants who ...

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• 25 April

  Obama says he expects progress on Asia, Europe trade deals

  

    Bloomberg President Barack Obama said he expects the U.S. Congress to vote on a trade deal with Asia-Pacific nations after the primary season over, and that his administration will complete negotiations on a similar pact with the European Union by the end of his presidency. “When we’re in the heat of campaigns people are naturally going to worry more ...

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• 25 April

  CHERNOBYL’S AFTERMATH

  

    Vienna / AFP Ukraine marks the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster today, when human error and flawed Soviet reactor technology led to the world’s worst nuclear accident. AFP looks at the steps taken since 1986 to improve nuclear safety around the world and — as Fukushima showed in 2011 — the challenges that remain. Only in the USSR? ...

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• 25 April

  30 years on, victims say they have been abandoned

  

    Russia / AFP Russian pensioner Anna Venderenko says her village wrestles daily with the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, dreading the moment when a lifeline provided by the government in Moscow is slashed. The 70-year-old lives in Starye Bobovichi, 180 kilometres northeast of the stricken nuclear plant in neighbouring Ukraine. On the night of April 26, 1986, a blast ...

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