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

  At last, the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is set to be formally signed today. The deal went through a roller-coaster. Opposition from many corners — essentially from Belgian’s Wallonia region — to the agreement threw up daunting challenges for the EU. It put at stake the bloc’s credibility as a union. Now that the deal is ...

  Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has been the only “adult in the room” since the U.K. vote to quit the European Union, according to former BOE policy maker Danny Blanchflower. It’s an assessment many would agree with. Unfortunately, Carney looks like he may be planning a Brexit of his own. Prime Minister Theresa May, former Foreign Secretary William ...

  Back in 2012, Daron Acemoglu — an economist I follow and greatly respect — wrote a paper along with James Robinson and Thierry Verdier claiming to explain why Scandinavian countries are (supposedly) less innovative than the U.S. Acemoglu et al. theorized that Scandinavia embraces “cuddly capitalism” — a strong safety net that prevents failure — while the U.S. goes ...

  In the 2000s, a series of academic papers showed that corporate America had become a much less comfortable place for incumbents. Lots of people in corporate America already knew this, but it was helpful to see peer-reviewed evidence: L.G. Thomas and Richard D’Aveni found big increases in profit volatility among manufacturing companies from 1950 to 2002. Diego Comin and ...

  Al Qayyarah / AFP Iraqi paramilitary forces launched an operation on Saturday to retake Tal Afar from the IS group, opening a new front in the nearly two-week-old offensive to recapture extremist-held Mosul. Forces from the Hashed Al-Shaabi, a paramilitary umbrella organisation dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias, have largely been on the sidelines since the launch of the Mosul operation. ...

  Bangui / AFP Twenty-five people were killed, six of them gendarmes, in two days of violence around the town of Bambari in the troubled Central African Republic, the UN force MINUSCA said on Saturday. Six police and four civilians were killed in an ambush by armed men Friday morning, while on Thursday, 15 people died in fighting on the town’s ...

  Kano /AFP Two suicide bombings rocked Nigeria’s northeast city of Maiduguri on Saturday, killing at least nine people and injuring scores of others, emergency services said. One explosion happened outside a gas station, while the other was near the Bakassi camp for internally displaced persons (IDP), underscoring the continued threat from Boko Haram extremists who are suspected of being ...

  Mogadishu / AFP Guards thwarted a suicide attack on the Yemeni central bank on Saturday opening fire on the bomber’s vehicle and blowing it up before it reached the building, a security official said. The central bank has been based in the government-controlled second city of Aden since last month, when President Abedabbo Mansour Hadi ordered its relocation from ...

  Aleppo / AFP Fresh fighting shook Aleppo on Saturday as rebels battled to break a siege of the city by the Syrian regime, accused by Washington of using starvation as a weapon of war. Opposition fighters unleashed a barrage of rockets on the government-held western side of the divided city on Friday as they announced a major offensive aimed ...

  Istanbul / AFP The families of Turkish activists killed in a 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship say they will not drop their legal cases despite a deal between Turkey and the Tel Aviv. Nine Turks died when Israeli marines stormed the “Mavi Marmara”, which was part of an aid flotilla to break a naval blockade of the ...