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

If India is to live up the expectations of its own people and become a successful middle-income country in a few decades, the country has multiple problems to solve—its sclerotic politics, its clogged infrastructure, its choked judicial system, its lack of investable capital, its interfering and inefficient state. But perhaps the greatest hurdle is its poor stock of human capital. ...

We’ve all heard that Apple Inc.’s iPhone X has been difficult to make. Add to that one word: the iPhone X is difficult to make profitably. Chief assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. just reported iPhone-quarter earnings that missed estimates. What’s more, third-quarter gross and operating margins were the worst in at least eight years. Apple’s late release of the ...

The Senate’s tax proposal would disrupt the disrupters: By taxing stock options at the time of vesting, rather than when they’re exercised, the change would push startups toward cash compensation. Venture capitalists say that would be expensive and harmful to innovation. But the reality is that changes in Silicon Valley financing culture over the last decade have made equity compensation ...

Bloomberg The cautious tone that swept into markets in recent days persisted, as equities fell around the world and bonds advanced with gold. The latest inflation data in the US did little to change views on Federal Reserve policy. The S&P 500 Index fell for the fourth time in five days, as new obstacles emerged to the US overhauling taxes. ...

Reuters Major Gulf stock markets fell on Wednesday, partly because of retreating global equities and oil prices, though builder Drake & Scull surged in Dubai despite a heavy quarterly loss. The Saudi Arabian Capital Market Authority (CMA) issued a statement before the market opened saying that listed companies would be exempt from publishing fourth-quarter financial statements because they are transitioning ...

Bloomberg Credit Suisse AG will pay $135 million to resolve currency-manipulation allegations by New York’s banking regulator, the latest echo from authorities’ long-running scrutiny of foreign-currency trading at big banks. Traders at the Zurich-based bank, prodded by executives in some cases, shared information about clients’ currency orders, talked to traders from other banks and in some instances front-ran customer orders ...

Bloomberg Sberbank PJSC set a record for profit in the third quarter, strengthening the case for fatter dividends as Russia’s biggest bank weighs changes to shareholder payouts. Net income rose 62 percent from a year earlier to 222 billion rubles ($3.68 billion), compared with a 193 billion-ruble average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloo-mberg. The previous record was set ...

Bloomberg New rules to protect taxpayers from bank failures may push investors out of a C$95 billion ($75 billion) corner of Canada’s corporate bond market, reducing liquidity and raising borrowing costs. Under a regime set to take effect in 2018, short-term bank-deposit notes typically sold to institutional investors will gradually be replaced by senior “bail-in” debt that can convert to ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England is on a one-a-year cycle when it comes to interest-rate increases, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The BOE lifted its benchmark to 0.5 percent on November 2 — the first hike in a decade — and the median forecast is for another move in the fourth quarter of 2018, earlier than then 2019 prediction ...

Bloomberg South African banks are preparing for the worst when it comes to the threat of another downgrade of the country’s debt. “FirstRand anticipated the downgrades since 2015 and has been working on a number of proactive strategies to mitigate the impact,” said Andries du Toit, the treasurer at Johannesburg-based FirstRand Ltd., the country’s second-biggest bank by assets. The measures ...