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

  In Asia, Western banks need to understand that small is beautiful. They need to be more nimble and focused, and accept that some things are best left to the locals. They should also focus on what pays: The multinational clients that were once their top customers and the private-equity firms that provide recurring fees are a lot more loyal ...

  Is there a way to measure a country’s overall success? Gross domestic product indicates how well the economy is working. Labor-force participation rates and median wages say something about how workers are faring. Newer measures of happiness, pride and other intangibles may fill in some soft details. There is one metric, however, that speaks volumes about how well any ...

  Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unprecedented cash clampdown was initially hailed as a surgical strike against black money menace. But now it seems to be an ill-conceived economic harakiri. One month after Modi government banned the two largest bank notes, people are still struggling to get their hands on the new currency. India is largely a cash –based economy. The ...

  The European Union after Brexit is not going to be an indulgent place. The remaining members of the bloc will do what they can to defuse political issues that worked in favour of Brexit, and killing so-called benefit tourism is one of the top items on the agenda. Benefit tourism — citizens of poorer EU countries moving to the ...

  As if the distress caused by India’s cash ban wasn’t enough, somebody started a rumour that Axis Bank Ltd., the country’s third-largest private sector lender by assets, would have its license revoked. Axis had to issue a statement to quell the speculation. But while this may have been a brief panic, the message to investors and analysts is clear: ...

  Jean Pierre Mustier has a mandate to change UniCredit SpA and is wasting none of it. Five months after taking the reins of the Italian lender, the CEO unveiled a mammoth capital raising and a new business plan on Tuesday. The hope is that this covers the cost of UniCredit’s past mistakes. It doesn’t yet provide a sustainable business ...

  Stress, I’ve long suspected, may explain why lifespans have been lengthening for high-income Americans but have remained the same or even shortened for low-income and middle-income people. A new analysis from the Hamilton Project released today adds important evidence: Biomarkers of stress have risen much more rapidly for low-income people than for high-income ones. The most recent national data ...

  Bloomberg JetBlue Airways Corp. plans to reduce annual costs by as much as $300 million by 2020 after efforts to boost revenue over the past two years have done better than the company expected. The largest share of savings — as much as $125 million — will come in aircraft maintenance operations, with additional cost reductions being generated by ...

  BEIRUT / Reuters European planemaker Airbus and Iran Air will finalise a deal to buy aircraft in two weeks, the head of Iran’s flag carrier said, adding Airbus has agreed to provide financing for 17 planes. Uncertainty over financing of the deal and political opposition in the United States against Iran have slowed down Tehran’s efforts to import aircraft ...

  RIYADH / Emirates Business flynas, the Saudi National Air Carrier, has broken a new record in the number of passengers travelling on the low cost Saudi carrier by approximately, 550,000, in November of this year, 2016, with an increase of 67% in the number of passengers in comparison to November of 2015. This record number of passengers is the ...