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

The Christine Lagarde-era at the European Central Bank (ECB) is barely a week old, but these first few days raise concern that her political agenda risks undermining trust in the institution. More specifically, Lagarde is expected to use the might of her new position to push through ideas that European elites prefer, such as closer fiscal coordination, but that broader ...

By this point, everyone knows that the US health-care system is fundamentally broken. But every plan to fix it runs into a fusillade of opposition. This dynamic could be seen in the reaction to the Affordable Care Act, which remained unpopular for years after its passage. The Obamacare system substantially reduced the number of Americans who were uninsured, but costs ...

President Trump seemed to be nearing a preliminary truce in his trade war with China. But the deeper danger that still lies ahead is a Sino-America technology war, as the two countries race to develop artificial intelligence. Beijing and Washington seemed to be clearing a path for a limited tariff-reduction deal with the announcement by China’s Commerce Ministry of a ...

When he walked out of jail in Curitiba in southern Brazil after 580 days, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was not an entirely free man. He is merely the highest-profile beneficiary of the November 7 Supreme Court decision to allow convicted criminals to remain at liberty until they exhaust all possible appeals. Yet for loyalists of the practically ...

The mooted record-breaking leveraged buyout of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. is a reminder of the powerful role of private capital in modern finance. But the fact that a private equity owner has a chance at making decent returns even after paying a premium for the US pharmacist raises difficult questions. Might the public markets be missing something yet again? A ...

Investors and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are fretting over the risk of a potential global recession caused by the US-China trade war. Their concern is misplaced. The true danger to global growth is the weakness of China’s domestic economy. Total US trade isn’t declining. On the contrary, it’s growing at or just beneath its decade-long rate. ...

Bloomberg Stocks in Europe slid on Monday along with US equity-index futures as traders awaited further developments on the trade front, while turmoil in Hong Kong added to the risk-off mood. Gold and the yen climbed. Banks and miners led the Stoxx Europe 600 index lower, and futures on the S&P 500 gauge also fell after President Donald Trump said ...

Bloomberg When it comes to adverse conditions for stock-market trading, Zimbabwe’s bourse belongs in a special category for extreme cases. Consider the challenges confronting Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Chief Executive Officer Justin Bgoni: a local currency that has crashed more than 80% since a peg to the US dollar was ended in February and annual inflation that the International Monetary Fund ...

Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd logged more than 268 billion yuan ($38.3 billion) of purchases during its Singles’ Day bonanza, exceeding last year’s record haul after a 24-hour shopping marathon. An estimated half-billion shoppers from China to Russia and Argentina swarmed the e-commerce giant’s sites to scoop up everything from Apple Inc and Xiaomi Corp gadgets to Ugandan mangoes. The ...

Bloomberg Boeing Co said one of the first revamped General Electric Co engines intended to power its 777X flight-test aircraft was damaged during a freak shipping accident last month. While the incident isn’t expected to create a new delay for the 777X, it does add to a string of mishaps to confound Boeing’s newest model. The 777X is already behind ...