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

  Frankfurt / AFP Mario Draghi may have bought himself a brief respite from the threat of deflation. The cost? More than a quarter of a trillion dollars. On Thursday, the European Central Bank president should be able to deliver his first snippet of good news for a year on his mandate. Most economists in Bloomberg’s monthly survey predict the ...

  Bloomberg The French economy grew faster than originally estimated in the first quarter, lifted by improving corporate investment. Growth accelerated to 0.6 percent, instead of the 0.5 percent estimated on April 29, France’s statistics office Insee said on Monday. That compares with a 0.4 percent increase in gross domestic product in the previous quarter. The economy expanded 1.4 percent ...

  Bloomberg Noble Group Ltd. said Yusuf Alireza resigned as chief executive officer and announced a plan to sell a business that less than a month ago Alireza himself described as a core asset the trading company wanted to keep. Alireza, 45, decided “the time was right” to leave after shifting the trader toward an asset-light model, selling its agriculture ...

  Bloomberg Gold’s on the ropes. Bullion broke below $1,200 an ounce on Monday after losing more than $100 in less than a month as Federal Reserve policy makers land punch after punch by talking up the prospects for a U.S. interest rate rise and reinvigorating the dollar. Bullion for immediate delivery lost as much as 1 percent to $1,199.80 ...

  Bloomberg Grupo BTG Pactual, the Brazilian bank that was forced to sell assets after the arrest of its founder last year, is exploring the sale of its 50 percent stake in an African joint venture with state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, according to people with knowledge of the matter. BTG has held sales talks with independent oil explorers ...

  Bloomberg Workers at South32 Ltd.’s Cerro Matoso, the world’s second-biggest ferro-nickel mine, voted to take strike action amid a dispute over negotiations on a wage agreement. Members of the Sintracerromatoso union approved the move at the operation in northern Colombia, the union’s negotiator Eder Blanco confirmed in a text message. A strike must begin before June 14, and a ...

BLOOMBERG The Fed factor dominated global markets, battering bonds and developing-nation currencies while lifting the dollar. Treasury 10-year futures slid the most in almost two weeks and German bunds declined after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said an interest-rate increase is likely in coming months. Emerging-market currencies headed toward the worst month since August and gold fell for a ninth ...

  Bloomberg Companies probably love getting attention from analysts at Emperor Securities Ltd. in Hong Kong. Investors who followed their advice for the past year, not so much. The unit of Emperor Capital Group Ltd. issued buy recommendations on every one of the 173 companies it reported covering from April 2015 through May 16. Its target prices, which the company ...

  Dubai / Reuters The oil market doomsayers are beginning to capitulate. Speculators reduced bets on falling prices to the lowest level in 11 months as oil briefly breached $50 a barrel on signs supplies are coming into balance. Crude climbed 7.4 percent this month in New York amid lower U.S. production and unplanned disruptions in Canada and Nigeria. Prices ...

  Bloomberg Danske Bank A/S is pitching a new product to help clients net their currency transactions and reduce the need for human traders. The second-biggest Nordic bank won a contract last week with Sweden’s government to provide the service and is now using that success to attract corporate clients. “For Danske Bank to be the primary, one-and-only supplier of ...