The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.

Shang-su Wu SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS With his term set to end in June, it’s an appropriate time to review the Philippines’ military modernization efforts under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III. During his six years in office, military modernization has advanced at a scale unprecedented since the Marcos era – but it remains insufficient. After the Philippines gained ...

Last week legislation to change the voting procedures for the Senate passed both houses of the Australian Parliament. With the current conservative Liberal/National coalition government not having a majority in the Senate, the legislation was passed with the assistance of the Greens, and the powerful South Australian Independent Senator, Nick Xenophon. Whenever a voting system becomes a topic of debate ...

BLOOMBERG The dollar is on its longest winning streak in a month as speculation builds that the Federal Reserve is moving closer to raising interest rates — and that’s weighing on oil, gold and emerging markets. The U.S. currency strengthened for a fourth day after Chicago Fed President Charles Evans joined officials who’ve said this week they expect to raise ...

ABU DHABI / EMIRATES BUSINESS The Emirates Securities Market Index has increased by 0.12% to close at 4503.58 points. Accordingly the Market Capitalization has gained AED 0.88 billion attaining AED 730.54 billion. A total of 378.09 Million Shares were traded with a total value of AED 0.55 billion during the trading session of 23-03-2016 through 6353 transactions. The number of companies which ...

CANBERRA / Bloomberg Australia’s central bank chief brushed aside US criticism of his comments on the local currency’s level, saying that it was probably too high and pointing to a record of overseeing a floating exchange rate. Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Glenn Stevens said in response to a question after a speech in Sydney that there’s “some risk” ...

Budapest / Bloomberg Hungary’s central bank said it had lowered one of its interest rates into negative territory for the first time, faced with with a drastically weaker inflation outlook. The rate for funds parked by commercial banks with the central bank overnight now stands at -0.05 percent. The bank also cut its main interest rate to 1.20 percent, also ...

Reuters British banks have cut the amount they charge for small international transfers between currencies by more than a fifth in the past three months as competition in the sector continues to grow, an index of market costs showed on Wednesday. Money transfer comparison and intelligence firm FXCompared.com said its quarterly International Money Transfer Index (IMTI) showed banks were starting ...

Zurich / Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG is planning to speed up and deepen cuts to the investment bank, five months after it announced an overhaul, said a person with knowledge of the discussions. Switzerland’s second-biggest bank may disclose that it’s accelerating cutbacks to trading businesses, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. ...

Bloomberg Banco Popolare SC is planning to raise about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) through a share sale, bad loan and asset disposals to meet the European Central Bank’s approval for a planned merger with Banca Popolare di Milano Scarl, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The lender sent a letter to the ECB proposing a series of ...

BEIJING / Bloomberg China’s airlines are reaping the benefits of a policy not to hedge in the oil market, unlike some of their rivals across Asia Pacific. The ’Big Three’ — Air China Ltd., China Southern Airlines Co. and China Eastern Airlines Corp., will probably report next week at least a 70 percent surge in net income for 2015 amid ...