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

  Bloomberg Scandinavia’s biggest bank is in talks with the Swedish government to stop it raising industry payments towards a national reserve intended to shield the country from the next financial crisis. Nordea Bank AB is trying to make the case that the government’s proposal poses ‘a risk,’ in part because the fees paid by lenders will go into the ...

  Bloomberg After more than a year of disinflation, price pressures are quickly mounting across South-east Asia as fuel costs rise, putting central banks on watch after years of policy easing. In Malaysia, consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in almost a year in January and economists see that as closing the door on another interest-rate cut this year ...

  Bloomberg A European Union bad bank would go a long way towards reducing the 1.2 trillion-euro ($1.3 trillion) mountain of soured loans on lenders’ books, but that relief may be a long time coming, according to the bloc’s bank regulator. Andrea Enria, chairman of the European Banking Authority (EBA) has proposed setting up a bloc-wide asset-management company to take ...

  PALORINYA / AP In the bushland of northern Uganda, a recently arrived refugee from South Sudan describes how soldiers detained and tortured him for two months back home for reading an article online. Tall and thin as a reed, dirt coating his tattered T-shirt and jeans, the young man is one of more than 100,000 people who have fled a ...

  Mexico City / AP The life’s work of Dona Queta is inconspicuous from the street, only the presence of a few flowers on the path in front of the white bars indicate there’s anything special behind them. But every day hundreds of people make the pilgrimage to the shrine, created by the 62-year-old to honour Santa Muerte in Mexico City’s ...

  Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp. is trading in long-term projects that pump oil over decades for US shale drilling that can be switched on or off as crude prices change. Long a world leader in multi-billion dollar oil and natural gas developments that take years to build and even longer to profit, Exxon is diverting about one-third of its drilling ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Oman’s government has given itself breathing space from the pressure of financing a large budget deficit by selling $5 billion of international bonds, almost completing its entire foreign borrowing plan for 2017 in a single issue. Wednesday’s bond sale, in tranches of five, 10 and 30 years, was about double the size that most investors had ...

Bloomberg Iraq’s crude exports rose 1 percent by volume in February, contrasting with a decrease in monthly shipments by Saudi Arabia after both countries agreed to OPEC’s plan to cut oil production in an effort to prop up prices and trim a global oversupply. Exports increased to 3.85 million barrels a day last month, about 39,000 barrels a day more ...

  Bloomberg Kuwait Energy Plc is planning an initial public offering in London that could value the oil and gas exploration business at as much as $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The independent energy firm, with assets across Oman, Egypt, Iraq and Yemen, is working with Bank of America Corp., the people said, asking not to ...

  Bloomberg India’s plan to push its top oil producer to fund a takeover of a state refining company may threaten some near-term investments including a plan to revive a long-delayed development project aimed at cutting the nation’s energy imports, according to company officials with knowledge of its finances. Oil & Natural Gas Corp.’s capital expenditure plans, including a $4.5 ...