BIARRITZ, France: Squabbles erupted among G7 nations on Saturday as their leaders gathered for an annual summit, exposing sharp differences on global trade tensions, Britain’s exit from the EU and how to respond to the fires raging in the Amazon rainforest.French President Emmanuel Macron, the summit host, planned the three-day meeting in the Atlantic seaside…
BEIRUT: Lebanon is committed to economic reforms and will overcome its crisis, the finance minister said after Fitch downgraded the country’s credit rating to CCC while S&P kept itat B-/B. Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said the ratings reports showed the urgency for reform, which the government has long put off. “There should be no slacking…
COLOGNE: Urging fans to plunge into a virtual high-res surround sound universe of extraordinary games, Google hopes its cloud-based Stadia platform will take the world by storm on its November launch. The US digital behemoth unveiled details of its nascent streaming video platform at this week’s Gamescom trade fair in Cologne in the hope it…
SINGAPORE: Asian refining margins have tumbled more than 50% since mid-July on anticipation of plummeting demand for high sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) ahead of a shift to cleaner marine fuels next year.Complex refining margins for a typical Singapore refinery, an Asian benchmark, had dropped to $4.31 a barrel by the close of markets on Thursday,…
WASHINGTON: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell sent no clear signal Friday that the Fed will further cut interest rates this year but said it would “act as appropriate” to sustain the expansion — phrasing that analysts see as suggesting rate cuts.Powell said President Donald Trump’s trade wars have complicated the Fed’s ability to set interest…
WASHINGTON: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell sent no clear signal Friday that the Fed will further cut interest rates this year but said it would “act as appropriate” to sustain the expansion — phrasing that analysts see as suggesting rate cuts.Powell said President Donald Trump’s trade wars have complicated the Fed’s ability to set interest…
LONDON: Electric luxury cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) may be 40 percent more likely to cause accidents than their standard engine counterparts, possibly because drivers are still getting used to their quick acceleration, French insurer AXA said. The numbers, based on initial trends from claims data and not statistically significant, also suggest small and…
LONDON: Electric luxury cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) may be 40 percent more likely to cause accidents than their standard engine counterparts, possibly because drivers are still getting used to their quick acceleration, French insurer AXA said. The numbers, based on initial trends from claims data and not statistically significant, also suggest small and…
LONDON: Electric luxury cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) may be 40 percent more likely to cause accidents than their standard engine counterparts, possibly because drivers are still getting used to their quick acceleration, French insurer AXA said. The numbers, based on initial trends from claims data and not statistically significant, also suggest small and…
TOKYO: Once a pioneer in cashless transactions, Japan is now lagging behind as the world’s biggest economies increasingly embrace electronic payments — because its ageing population still prefers physical money. Four out of five purchases are still made with cash in Japan, despite its reputation as a futuristic and innovative nation. In South Korea, some 90…
TOKYO: Once a pioneer in cashless transactions, Japan is now lagging behind as the world’s biggest economies increasingly embrace electronic payments — because its ageing population still prefers physical money. Four out of five purchases are still made with cash in Japan, despite its reputation as a futuristic and innovative nation. In South Korea, some 90…
DUBAI: Gulf Marine Services said on Wednesday Chief Executive Officer Duncan Anderson has resigned as the oilfield industry contractor warned a reassessment of its ships and contracts showed profit would fall this year, kicking its shares 12 percent down. The Abu Dhabi-based offshore services specialist said a review by new finance chief Stephen Kersley of its…
LONDON: Motiva Enterprises, the US refining unit of Saudi Aramco, has struck a deal to buy the Flint Hills Resources chemical plant in Texas. The plant is located next to Motiva’s 630,000 barrels-a-day Port Arthur refinery — the largest in the US. The deal represents a significant move downstream by Motiva. “This marks the entry…
SHANGHAI: China lowered its new lending reference rate slightly on Tuesday, as the country’s central bank kicked off new interest rate reforms designed to lower corporate borrowing costs. But the tiny reduction in the revamped Loan Prime Rate (LPR), which is calculated from price contributions from selected banks, reflects lenders’ reluctance to reduce loan rates.…
BEIJING: China’s demand for iron ore pellets and high-quality ore is expected to accelerate in 2020 as a result of Beijing’s push to shift dozens of steel mills to coastal regions in its battle to stop smog blanketing industrial cities.Relocating plants to the coast, with stricter environmental requirements, means up to 20 percent of China’s…
LONDON: Global stock markets recovered some further ground Monday after last week’s turbulence when ongoing concerns about a trade war between the US and China and an array of worries about waning growth across the world weighed heavily on sentiment. Last week, many stock indexes around the world struck their lowest levels this year, before…
WASHINGTON: US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Monday the US government will extend a reprieve given to Huawei Technologies that permits the Chinese firm to buy supplies from US companies so that it can service existing customers, even as nearly 50 of its units were being added to a US economic blacklist.The “temporary general license,”…
WASHINGTON: A number of US business economists appear sufficiently concerned about the risks of some of President Donald Trump’s economic policies that they expect a recession in the US by the end of 2021. Thirty-four percent of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics, in a report being released Monday, said they believe a…
BUENOS AIRES: Washington and Beijing are working actively to revive negotiations aimed at ending the trade war that has rattled world markets, Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser said Sunday.If teleconferences between both sides’ deputies pan out in the next 10 days “and we can have a substantive renewal of negotiations,” Larry Kudlow said on Fox…
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he did not want the United States to do business with China’s Huawei even as the administration weighs whether to extend a grace period for the company.Reuters and other media outlets reported on Friday that the US Commerce Department is expected to extend a reprieve given to…
