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

Bloomberg The US is preparing new penalties against North Korea after determining that a pair of purported satellite launches by Kim Jong Un’s regime were used to test systems for a long-anticipated new ICBM. The restrictions would aim to further block North Korea’s purchase of foreign technologies, a senior Biden Administration official told reporters Thursday, without providing more details. The ...

  Bloomberg Premier Li Keqiang reiterated China’s support for cease-fire talks between Russia and Ukraine, while continuing to avoid criticizing the invasion ordered last month by President Vladimir Putin. “On Ukraine, indeed the current situation there is grave and China is deeply concerned and aggrieved,” Li said in response to a question at his annual news briefing at the end ...

  Bloomberg The number of Ukrainian refugees entering Poland rose to 1.52 million this morning, the Polish border guards reported on Twitter. Although Poland’s daily refugee inflow from Ukraine fell by 26%, 87,000 people crossed border with Ukraine on March 10. Yesterday, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski stated there were around 290,000 refugees in Poland’s largest city. According to UNHCR, the ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s government wants to boost defense spending to meet the target that the Nato defense alliance has set for its members, as the largest Nordic nation seeks to strengthen its ability to defend itself after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. The country, which currently spends about 1.3% of gross domestic product on its military, wants to reach the level of ...

  Bloomberg Ukrainian food conglomerate MHP SE built its business exporting grains and poultry to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. War forced a pivot, and now the company supplies the Ukrainian army and delivers ready-to-eat chicken to civilians in bombed-out cities. The shift shows how quickly Ukraine’s farming industry—a global heavyweight —flipped from feeding the world to feeding ...

Bloomberg Washington criticized China and Russia for promoting a conspiracy theory that the US military runs biolabs in Ukraine, escalating a dispute over attempts at misleading the public over the war in Europe. “We took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged US biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in ...

  Bloomberg China’s credit expansion slowed as a long holiday and the slumping housing market meant people and companies borrowed less, raising expectations that the central bank will need to do more to support growth. Banks lent 1.2 trillion yuan ($194 billion) in the month, down from 4 trillion yuan in January and less than in February last year, the ...

  Bloomberg Nigerian lenders cut the dollar spending limits on local currency cards to free more resources to fund imports after the central bank signaled it will stop foreign-exchange sales to banks. United Bank for Africa Plc stopped the use of naira card to withdraw dollars from automated teller machines outside the country or make international payments at point of ...

  Bloomberg Telecom giants Orange SA and Masmovil Ibercom SA are seeking to line up a debt package of up to 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) to back a joint venture, creating one of the largest leveraged debt financings in the region, people familiar with the matter said. Orange and Masmovil entered into exclusive negotiations on March 8 to combine ...

Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co joined Goldman Sachs Group Inc in pulling back from Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine last month. JPMorgan, the biggest US bank, is currently engaging in limited activities in the country, the New York-based company said in a statement. Goldman Sachs said it plans to close its operations there. The finance-industry titans ...