August, 2019

• 13 August

  Tourism is overwhelming the world’s top destinations

  

  In 1953, mountaineers Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary made the first confirmed summiting of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak. Recently, Everest has grown so popular that photos are surfacing showing huge lines of climbers waiting to surmount that same peak. On rarefied ground where once only Norgay and Hillary tread, now climbers are dying because of overcrowding. A less ...

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• 13 August

  ECB’s stimulus push keeps bond investors in suspense

  

  Bloomberg Mario Draghi’s plans for a parting stimulus shot before he retires as European Central Bank president are laced with even more suspense than usual. While the ECB is widely expected to cut interest rates next month, the prospect of a renewed round of asset purchases is shrouded in uncertainty. Investors must judge how much quantitative easing the euro-zone economy ...

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• 13 August

  Commerzbank hits record low as Europe’s banking woes worsen

  

  Bloomberg Three years into Commerzbank AG Chief Executive Officer Martin Zielke’s turnaround, the party’s over. Shares of the lender fell to a record low, capping a roller coaster ride that saw the stock more than double after the CEO announced his plan, buoyed by expectations for higher interest rates and consolidation in European banking. Zielke has refocused the bank on ...

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• 13 August

  RBA’s Kent says interest-rate cuts flow to Australia economy

  

  Bloomberg Australia’s back-to-back interest-rate cuts are flowing through the financial system and into the economy, while the falling currency should provide a similar stimulus to sustained declines of previous years, a senior Reserve Bank official said. “The transmission of monetary policy in Australia to financial conditions is working in the usual way,” Christopher Kent, assistant governor for financial markets, said ...

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• 13 August

  SNB to follow interventions with ‘rate cut’

  Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) may have to do more than pump billions into foreign exchange markets into prevent the franc from appreciating to a damaging level. With data suggesting the central bank recently intervened after the currency rose to the highest since 2017 against the euro, an increasing number of economists expect the SNB to reduce its benchmark ...

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• 13 August

  Absa’s retail-banking push pays off as profit rises 5.4% in first-half

  Bloomberg Absa Group Ltd.’s push to reclaim market share lost while under the control of Barclays Plc is beginning to pay off at the South African lender’s main retail-banking business. First-half net income climbed 5.4% to 7.64 billion rand as Absa provided more personal loans and credit cards, while boosting the revenue it generates from fees and commissions, the Johannesburg-based ...

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• 13 August

  Mobile phones are replacing bank accounts in Africa

  

  Bloomberg It doesn’t look like the hub of an online bank. But that’s what the yellow and blue metal kiosk becomes when Albert Agane locks himself behind the metal bars every day at 6 a.m. From his perch along a dusty suburban thoroughfare in Accra, the 28-year-old helps fellow Ghanaians withdraw or deposit cash for accounts they operate from their ...

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• 7 August

  UAE unveils strategic water project in Yemen’s Qataba

  HODEIDAH / WAM The UAE, through its humanitarian arm, the Emirates Red Crescent (ERC), on Wednesday launched a strategic water project in Qataba in the Khawkhah District, Hodeidah Governorate, as part of its efforts to respond to the needs of people in Yemen’s Red Sea Coast. Mohamed Al Junaibi, Director of Humanitarian Affairs at the ERC in Yemen, stated that ...

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• 7 August

  UAE, Saudi send 540,000 tonnes of wheat to Sudan

  ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE and Saudi Arabia allocated 540,000 tonnes of wheat to the Sudanese people, meeting the population’s ba-sic food requirements for thr-ee months, announced Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) on Wednesday. ADFD Director-General Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi said, “The food security support provided to the Sudanese people is in line with the wise directives of ...

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• 7 August

  7 more Emiratis join UAE’s nuclear sector

  ABU DHABI / WAM The third batch of Emirati engineers and physicists completed their one-year intensive nuclear regulatory development progam at the UAE’s Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR). The graduates, comprising sev-en young Emiratis, will begin their nuclear career at the authority. During the year, developees gained fundamental training to underst-and technical concepts applicable to nuclear engineering, radiation safety ...

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