Innovation holds key to economic growth

International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recommendations to adopt policies that support research and development to promote innovation could play a pivotal role in reversing the global economic slowdown. Such recommendations could be implemented through structural reforms in labour and product markets that take innovation into account. “Fiscal policy can play an important role in stimulating innovation through its effects on research ...

Read More »

China’s $50 trillion plan for a global energy grid

Shannon Tiezzi SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS China’s State Grid Corp. has unveiled an ambitious blueprint for creating a global electricity network. As Wall Street Journal reports, on Wednesday State Grid chairman Liu Zhenya outlined the $50 trillion plan, which calls for long-range transmission lines to create a world grid that heavily incorporates wind and solar energy from the Arctic and ...

Read More »

Dumping Rousseff alone won’t cure Brazil

When Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff walked down the ramp at the presidential palace in Brasilia the other day, she might have been a national hero. “There will be struggle, there will be resistance,” a gruff-voiced leader of the homeless workers’ movement announced, turning the announcement of a new federal housing initiative into a political rally. “This bogus coup attempt will ...

Read More »

What if they gave an ASEAN Summit and the media failed to turn up?

For years, in news rooms across the region, reporters and editors have argued about the merits of sending teams of journalists and photographers to cover the annual ASEAN summits. Interest is in a state of constant decline even as costs escalate. A major problem is rarely do ASEAN gatherings offer news that would be considered worthy for the front pages ...

Read More »

‘Trump Republican’ is a seriously damaged brand

Donald Trump is taking a troubled brand — the Republican Party — and making it worse. In last week’s Bloomberg Politics national survey, 60 percent of Americans said they had an unfavorable view of Republicans, the highest level in seven years. Since 2009, when this survey began, a plurality of the public has regarded the party with disfavor, but over ...

Read More »

Mideast stocks sink with oil as Saudis pin crude halt on others

BLOOMBERG Saudi Arabian stocks declined to a five-week low, leading losses across most Middle Eastern equities, after the deputy crown prince triggered a slump in crude prices by placing the onus of reducing oil output on other countries. The Tadawul All Share Index decreased 1.6 percent to close at 6,126.12, nearing the 50-day moving average it’s traded above for more ...

Read More »

Emirates Securities Market down by -0.96

ABU DHABI / EMIRATES BUSINESS The Emirates Securities Market Index has decreased by -0.96% to close at 4459.88 points. Accordingly the Market Capitalization has lost AED 7.02 billion attaining AED 723.45 billion. A total of 421.12 Million Shares were traded with a total value of AED 376.46 million during the trading session of 03-04-2016 through 4439 transactions. The number of companies which ...

Read More »

Central banks’ arsenals in spotlight

Madrid / Reuters At the end of a tough quarter, the fraught debate over how policymakers should tackle the world’s economic woes gets another airing in the coming week as central banks on both sides of the Atlantic publish minutes. Solid growth in US employment and an unexpected manufacturing uptick in China in March will have provided some comfort, but ...

Read More »

Zimbabwe says banks have credible plans to sell stakes

Harare / Reuters Foreign banks operating in Zimbabwe have submitted credible plans on how they intend to transfer majority shares to locals, the country’s finance minister said on Saturday, reducing the chances the government could cancel their licences. Under an Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act all foreign companies operating in Zimbabwe were given a March 31 deadline to sell at ...

Read More »

Fed approves rule allowing banks to use munis as crisis buffer

Bloomberg The Federal Reserve has given final approval to a rule that will let banks include investment-grade municipal bonds among the assets they use to meet regulatory requirements to ensure they have sufficient liquidity to weather a crisis. The Fed and other US financial regulators adopted the liquidity coverage ratio requirement in October 2014 as a response to bank deficiencies ...

Read More »
Send this to a friend