December, 2016

• 17 December

  Burning ivory, waging war

  

    Nairobi / AFP It was one of the most momentous events in the battle against poaching: 11 giant pyres of elephant tusks going up in flames in Kenya as the world looked on. The largest-ever destruction of ivory, which took place in April, was the pinnacle of efforts to jolt mankind into stopping the slaughter of wildlife, while sending ...

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• 17 December

  Beating malaria with soap in Burkina Faso

  

    Ouagadougou/ AFP Thrusting their arm into a box full of hungry mosquitoes, a group of brave volunteers in a Burkina Faso laboratory test an innovative weapon in the fight against malaria — soap. The team behind the “Faso Soap” project aims to create a cheap, accessible product to repel mosquitoes and protect people from a disease that claimed nearly ...

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• 15 December

  UAE-China trade to reach AED216bn by year-end

  

    DUBAI / WAM Trade between the UAE and China is expected to increase to US$60 billion (AED216 billion) by the end of this year, up from $54.8 in 2015, as the UAE is now China’s second largest trading partner in the Middle East and the region’s biggest market for Chinese goods, according to the Dubai Economic Council (DEC). China, ...

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• 15 December

  Foreigners buy shares worth AED1.8bn on DFM

    DUBAI / WAM Foreign investors purchased shares worth AED1.8 billion on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) over the week, while the value of stocks they sold amounted to AED1.9 billion, a DFM report said. The net foreign investment during the period reached AED150.1 million, as aggregate sale. The value of shares bought by foreigner investors comprised 35.6 per cent ...

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• 15 December

  NBAD closes $2bn loan syndication

    ABU DHABI / WAM The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) closed the syndication of its US$2 billion club loan facility with a large oversubscription. Commitments of nearly $3 billion were received in syndication from 14 major international banks across Europe, Asia and the United States. However, due to its excellent liquidity position, NBAD will not be increasing the ...

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• 15 December

  Central Bank hikes interest rates

    ABU DAHBI / WAM The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) announced that, as of December 15, it has raised interest rates applied to its Certificates of Deposits in line with increase in interest rates on US Dollar, following the Federal Reserve Board’s decision to increase Federal Funds Rate by 25 basis points. Certificates of Deposit, which CBUAE issues ...

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• 15 December

  UAE participates in Arab Tourism Council meeting in Oman

    MUSCAT / WAM The UAE participated in the meeting held on Thursday by Arab tourism ministers in Muscat, Oman to discuss efforts in developing the tourism industry in the Arab region. The UAE delegation at the 19th Arab Ministerial Tourism Council, an affiliate of the Arab League, is headed by Mohammed Khamis Al Muhairi, Under-secretary at the Ministry of ...

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• 15 December

  OPEC forecasts put world oil demand growth at 1.15 mb/d

  

    VIENNA / WAM In 2017, world oil demand growth is forecast at 1.15 mb/d to average 95.56 mb/d, according to OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report. ‘‘World oil demand growth is estimated at 1.24 mb/d in 2016 supported by the transportation sector, reflecting low retail prices and better-than-anticipated vehicle sales. In the non-OECD, other Asia and China saw solid-to-steady oil ...

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• 15 December

  Some of Trump’s economic stats are true

  

    During his campaign and even since becoming president-elect, Donald Trump has said a lot of things and cited a lot of figures that appear to be completely made up. When he has talked about the economy, though, Trump has often relied on actual government statistics. For example, there was Trump’s charge that Barack Obama has been “the first president ...

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• 15 December

  When to send an investing model into retirement

  

    Here’s a maxim for life as a famous economist: If your theory wins a Nobel Prize, look out — it might already be running into big problems. When the Black-Scholes-Merton option-pricing model won the prize in 1997, it had already required some major tweaks to fit new data; a decade later, it was being blamed for the financial crisis. ...

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