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

Bloomberg US new-home construction unexpectedly fell in March, decelerating to the slowest pace since May 2017 and suggesting builders remain wary even as lower mortgage rates and steady wage gains offer support to consumers. Residential starts fell 0.3 percent to a 1.139 million annualised rate after a downwardly revised 1.142 million pace in the prior month, according to government figures ...

In the rebalancing of Sino-American relations that’s underway, the usual roles are reversed: China’s normally deft President Xi Jinping appears to have badly overreached in seeking advantage. And President Trump, who often seems tone-deaf on foreign policy, is riding a bipartisan consensus that it’s time to push back against Beijing. The two nations will probably make a trade deal soon, ...

Whisper it quietly, but the worst may be over for the euro zone economy. After months of gloom, and with analysts wondering whether Europe was heading for a recession, the industrial sector shows signs of stabilising. The slight revival will please the European Central Bank (ECB), which is considering whether to double down on its monetary easing as it struggles ...

President Donald Trump, who has received unprecedented support from America’s gun lobby, seems determined to make it easier to export firearms and harder to keep track of whether they’re destined for terrorists or rogue regimes. He proposes to do this by shifting oversight of the export of semi-automatic and non-automatic firearms, as well as of various gun components and some ...

Almost 10 years after the Great Recession ended, the growing threat of a new economic slowdown raises a troubling question: When the next recession strikes, what can the world’s central banks do? With interest rates low and their balance sheets still loaded with assets bought to fight the 2008 crisis, do they have the tools to respond? The Great Recession ...

As nearly a billion Indians are going to the polls this month and next, no one doubts jobs will be central to their vote. We just can’t agree on whether the employment picture is rosy or dark. While the government cites payroll data to claim significant job creation, the opposition holds up a leaked preliminary report that pegged unemployment in ...

BlackRock used to be able to skip over market mayhem. Now it seems as if the ground is shifting under it. The S&P 500 Index rose 13% in first quarter, a big snap back from 2018, when it was down 6%. BlackRock’s earnings did fall last year, but world’s largest asset-management firm was still able to produce a relatively impressive ...

It’s hard to find anyone who is, at least publicly, in favour of Deutsche Bank AG’s merger with Commerzbank AG. Even one adviser on the deal privately acknowledged what most observers suspect: putting together the two ailing German banks will only create a bigger lender with exactly the same problems. That’s not exactly an endorsement of what would be Europe’s ...

ABU DHABI / WAM In his capacity as Ruler of Abu Dhabi, President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has issued a law amending provisions of Law No. 19 of 2005 concerning real estate sector in Abu Dhabi. The new law stipulates amendments to Articles 3 and 4 of the ‘Real Property Law’. Article 3 (i) stipulates the ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast the UAE’s nominal gross domestic product (GDP) to grow 4.7 percent to AED 1.673 trillion ($460 billion) in 2019, compared to AED 1.589 trillion a year ago. The GDP growth is reflective of the economic diversification efforts made by the country, according to the Washington-based fund. Driven by remarkable ...