Bloomberg Singapore’s economy will slow in 2019, reflecting a weakening in key trading partners and a further cooling of the electronics sector, the central bank said. The city state is set to expand slightly below the midpoint of a 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent forecast range for this year after growing 3.2 percent in 2018, the Monetary Authority of Singapore ...
Read More »US cuts government borrowing estimate
Bloomberg The US Treasury Department indicated that the government will need to borrow less than previously estimated as the Federal Reserve slows the reduction of its asset portfolio on its balance sheet. The department expects to issue $30 billion in privately held net marketable debt between April and June, assuming a cash balance of $270 billion at the end of ...
Read More »HSBC’s Hong Kong fortress faces biggest threat from virtual banks
Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc spent 150 years building a financial fortress around Hong Kong that touches nearly every aspect of life in the former British colony. One of the bank’s biggest threats? A pack of upstart virtual lenders, which barely existed two months ago, backed by the likes of Standard Chartered Plc and Chinese internet insurer ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance ...
Read More »Sainsbury gets boost as CEO clings on after Asda failure
Bloomberg J Sainsbury Plc got some breathing space from better-than-expected profit after the collapse of a 7.3 billion-pound ($9.5 billion) deal to acquire Walmart Inc’s Asda. The grocer’s shares rose as much as 6.4 percent as the company laid out its Plan B for fighting the UK’s supermarket wars alone. Sainsbury said it will invest in improving its stores, where ...
Read More »Saudi’s Flynas plans Africa, Balkan hub
Bloomberg Saudi Arabian budget airline Flynas LCC plans to open a hub in West Africa or the Balkans within five years to expand beyond its oversupplied domestic market, according to the airline’s chief executive officer. “Since we are a short-haul carrier, we seek to link those hubs with the current hubs in Saudi Arabia,†CEO Bander Al-Mohanna said in an ...
Read More »Italian fashion brand unveils its SS19 collection in UAE
Dubai / Emirates Business Italy’s leading apparel fashion brand is set to release its Spring/Summer 2019 collection for men, women as well as kids across its stores in the UAE. For women, making a big comeback this summer from OVS are suits with oversized jackets, the new trench in both traditional beige gabardine and in bright check prints. When it ...
Read More »Qantas CEO commits to three more years at helm
Bloomberg Qantas Airways Ltd Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce committed to stay on for at least three more years, extending his tenure to the planned start of groundbreaking non-stop flights halfway round the world. A spokesman for the Australian airline confirmed a report in the Sydney Morning Herald that said Joyce, 52, made the pledge at the request of the ...
Read More »Next cruises through UK ‘high street’, Brexit
Bloomberg Amid all the precariousness of Brexit and talk of the death of the high street, a humble clothing seller counters the pessimism as one of the UK’s best-performing blue chips of 2019. Next Plc shares are up 44 percent year-to-date, the second-biggest gainer on the benchmark FTSE 100 index. The stock held onto those gains as the company said ...
Read More »Heathrow runway overcomes Mayor, protesters’ opposition
Bloomberg London Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, saw off an attempt by environmental groups to block construction of a third runway that it says is needed to boost flights and compete with rival hubs trying to steal its traffic. Construction, which was challenged by Friends of the Earth, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and other groups after the UK government approved the ...
Read More »Sharjah non-oil GDP hit AED89b in 2018
SHARJAH / WAM The Sharjah’s 2018 non-oil GDP hit AED89 billion, according to an analytical report on the results of Sharjah’s economy in 2018 issued by Sharjah Economic Development Department (SEDD), with all non-oil sectors accounting for 91.9 percent of the GDP. The report indicated an increase in the volume of general production in the emirate in 2018 to about ...
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