May, 2017

• 8 May

  Dubai to run ‘Super Sale’ from May 18-20

  

    DUBAI / Emirates Business Retail therapy starts early this summer in Dubai with the 3-day Super Sale, a new citywide retail initiative that will offer shoppers the opportunity to pick up amazing deals across a range of merchandise at participating outlets from May 18-20. Organised by the Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment (DFRE), an agency of the Department of ...

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• 8 May

  Saudi Arabia, Russia signal oil-cuts extension into 2018

  

    Bloomberg Saudi Arabia and Russia signaled they could extend production cuts into 2018, doubling down on an effort to eliminate a supply surplus just as its impact on prices wanes. In separate statements just hours apart on Monday, the world’s largest crude producers said publicly for the first time they would consider prolonging their output reductions for longer than ...

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• 8 May

  Bahrain foreign currency reserves tumble 11%

  

    Bloomberg Bahrain’s foreign-currency reserves tumbled 11 percent in February, extending a decline that has fueled speculation that the island kingdom would either tap international bond markets soon or seek financial support from other Gulf Arab monarchies. Net foreign assets dropped to 645.2 million dinars, from 725.9 million dinars in January, according to central bank data released on Sunday. Overall, ...

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• 8 May

  Japan produces gas from methane hydrate

  

    TOKYO / Reuters Japan’s trade ministry on Monday reported success in producing gas last week by extracting methane gas from methane hydrate deposits offshore Japan’s central coast. The tests being run at two different wells are the first since 2013, when Japan achieved the world’s first-ever extraction of gas from offshore deposits of methane hydrate, a frozen gas known ...

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• 8 May

  Iran gold jewellery demand increases to four-year high

  

    Bloomberg Iran’s gold jewellery demand climbed to a four-year high in the first quarter, as the rest of the Middle East was hurt by low oil prices. An improving economy helped Iran’s jewelry demand climb 27 percent from a year earlier to 12.9 metric tons in the first three months this year, the World Gold Council said in a ...

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• 8 May

  Obama warned Trump against hiring Flynn, ex-officials say

  

    Bloomberg President Barack Obama warned Donald Trump during the presidential transition against hiring Michael Flynn as his national security adviser, according to two former Obama administration officials. The revelation came hours before Trump’s former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, is to testify to a Senate panel about what the Trump White House was ...

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• 8 May

  Merkel challenger joins Macron for EU growth

    Bloomberg German Social Democrat Martin Schulz said he would join France’s Emmanuel Macron in leading an investment boom in Europe to buttress the region’s economy if he’s elected to replace Angela Merkel as chancellor in September. President-elect Macron, a “reform-minded and ambitious” candidate, requires a “similar energy” from Germany to spur much-needed growth in the European Union, Schulz told ...

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• 8 May

  New rebel group threatens to intensify S Sudan’s civil war

    Bloomberg A former general in South Sudan’s army said he commands a new rebel movement of at least 30,000 fighters that will seek to overthrow President Salva Kiir, threatening to deepen the three-year civil war in Africa’s newest nation. Thomas Cirillo, a former lieutenant general, resigned as deputy chief for logistics in South Sudan’s army in February, accusing Kiir ...

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• 8 May

  Who wants to be a billionaire (in 1916)?

  

    Having bestowed the presidency on a candidate who described their country as a “hellhole” besieged by multitudes trying to get into it, Americans need an antidote for social hypochondria. Fortunately, one has arrived from Don Boudreaux, an economist at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center and proprietor of the indispensable blog Cafe Hayek. He has good news: You are as ...

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• 8 May

  OPEC’s missing a return ticket for its trip back to 2014

  

    The benefits of OPEC’s agreement to cut output have proved elusive. With less than three weeks to go before the group’s next meeting, something is very, very wrong as far as oil producers are concerned. And they have no easy solution to put it right. The oil price is not far off where it was in November, before OPEC ...

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