AMMAN: The Jordanian government has received an offer from Iran to supply the country with natural gas, Energy Minister Khalid Touqan said.
DUBAI: UAE mall developer Majid Al-Futtaim (MAF), which pushed back a bond issue citing market conditions, plans to raise $1 billion in three and five-year loans, two sources familiar with the matter said.
RIYADH: Four major Saudi banks reported quarterly profits that met or beat analysts estimates on Monday.
CAIRO: Egypt’s finance ministry said it had begun implementing a 708 Egyptian pound ($119) per month minimum wage for current government employees, up from the 444 pounds paid under last year’s budget.
GENEVA: Governments in Africa need to adopt new policies to ramp up manufacturing if the continent is to eliminate widespread poverty and create jobs to avoid conflict, a UN official said.
LUSAKA: Copper output in Zambia, Africa’s top producer of the metal, declined by about five percent in the first five months of 2011 from a year ago as mines scaled down production due to heavy rain, the central bank said.
LONDON: The International Energy Agency (IEA) said the amount of oil made available from emergency reserves, to make up for disrupted Libyan supply, would be slightly less than earlier stated after sales by member-countries met with mixed demand.
SINGAPORE/ZURICH: Nestle, the world’s largest food company, is paying a hefty $1.7 billion for a 60 percent stake in candymaker Hsu Fu Chi International to move deeper into fast-growing markets in China.
SAN FRANCISCO: An intensifying quarrel between Samsung and Apple is triggering expectations that some of the pairs’ $5 billion-plus relationship may be up for grabs.
BRUSSELS: China will probably not yield to demands to ease export restrictions on rare earths, unlike its flexibility in some previous trade disputes, even after the World Trade Organization ruled against it in a related case.
SHANGHAI/BEIJING: China’s premier and the country’s central bank governor vowed on Monday to prevent stubbornly high inflation from upending the economy, reinforcing expectations for more increases in interest rates and bank reserve requirements.
JUBA: Newly independent South Sudan on Monday said it planned to roll out its new currency in a week at a one-to-one value with the north Sudanese pound.
SHANGHAI: China’s copper staged a strong comeback in June, but the outlook was marred by falls in a list of other key commodities, showing that Beijing’s cooling measures were weighing on the economy.
SINGAPORE/TOKYO: Saudi Arabia’s offer of additional crude in August drew scant interest from refiners across northeast Asia who declined supplies beyond contracted volumes, while one buyer each in India and Southeast Asia accepted extra barrels of light oil.
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's Almarai Co. said Monday it would cancel a recent price hike for some of its dairy products. The move is in compliance with a resolution issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, according to a company statement posted on the Tadawul website.
CAIRO: Egyptian inflation in the year to June eased slightly on the back of lower food prices from a year earlier, supporting a hold in central bank interest rates in July to support an economy reeling from the impact of the revolt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
Behind the resolutions, the statements and the rhetoric of the Board of Governors of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) at the recent 36th Annual Meeting which was held in Jeddah on June 29-30, were some commendable suggestions from member countries aimed at speeding up the efficiency and effectiveness of the bank.
DUBAI: Saudi Arabian Fertilizers Co. (SAFCO) slumped to a three-week low on Sunday after the firm’s second-quarter profit missed estimates, sparking selling in other petrochemical stocks.
Every Muslim country especially the populous ones such as Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Egypt should have one. But of the 56 member countries of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), only one has and another is in the process of establishing one. The institution in question is a non-banking savings institution for would-be Haj pilgrims such as the one pioneered by Malaysia in the 1960s, Lembaga Tabung Haji (The Malaysian Pilgrims Management Fund) which today has assets in excess of RM10 billion with equity stakes in Islamic banks, plantations and technology companies.
DUBAI: Iran plans to invest $18 billion by 2015 to boost output the oil-rich south and expects its Yadavaran field to start production in a few months, the Iranian Oil Ministry’s website Shana said.
Commercial and credit risk insurance is part and parcel of most financial transactions, although some companies doing cash business in some emerging countries including the Middle East are known to ignore any kind of insurance to cover any potential losses as a result of non-performance of the provisions of the transaction.
JEDDAH: The Saudi Hotels and Resorts Company has announced its interim financial results for the first 6 months of this year.
SYDNEY: Australia’s Qantas Airways will make cuts to its loss-making international operations under a new business strategy to be announced next month, chief executive Alan Joyce said.
JEDDAH: Methanol Chemicals Company (Chemanol) has announced a 23 percent increase in its second-quarter profits as it announced the interim financial results for the period ended June 30.
DUBAI: Oman’s budget deficit jumped to 253.4 million rials ($658.2 million) in the first three months of the year as rising oil revenue failed to offset increasing state spending, finance ministry data showed.
BAGHDAD: Iraq will sign a final contract with Royal Dutch Shell on Tuesday for a $12-billion project to capture flared gas at southern oil fields, two sources close to the deal said.
RIYADH: Saudi Arabian Fertilizers Co. (Safco) said its quarterly net profit fell 13 percent, hit by lower ammonia sales, missing analysts expectations for the second straight quarter.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s state oil firm Petronas wants to lower its reserve replenishment ratio from 2.5 to 1.1, the company’s chief executive said.
LONDON: The Church of England has threatened to pull its $6 million investment in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. over the phone hacking scandal at its News of the World paper.
RIYADH: Alinma Bank said its net income for the second quarter amounted to SR102 million, compared to net income of SR3 million for the same quarter of previous year with an increase of 3,300 percent, according to information posted on Tadawul website on Saturday.
RIYADH: Bank Albilad said its net income for Q2 2011 was SR81.7 million compared to net income of SR32.8 million for the same period in 2010, with an increase of 149 percent, according to information posted on Tadawul website on Saturday.
RIYADH: Saudi Agriculture 2011 has been scheduled following the holy month of Ramadan from Sept. 19 to 22 in Riyadh, a senior official at Riyadh International Exhibition Center said Saturday. It has been the leading international agriculture, water and agro-industry show in the region for 30 consecutive years.
JEDDAH: The Saudi stock index ended 0.24 percent or 15.84 points higher on Saturday boosted by gains in the banking and petrochemical stocks.
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia's annual inflation rose to 4.7 percent in June from 4.6 percent in May, the Saudi Press Agency reported Saturday, quoting data from the Central Department of Statistics. The cost of living index in June reached 134.2 points against 133.7 in May, registering a 0.4 percent rise.
The higher index in June is attributed to the rise in the prices of four major components — maintenance, rental, fuel and water by 1 percent, food and drinks 0.5 percent, household furniture 0.3 percent and education and entertainment 0.1 percent.
JEDDAH: Jeddah has been ranked as one of the top 10 cheapest cities in the world, according to the Worldwide Cost of Living (2011) survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Karachi was the cheapest, while Tokyo was the most expensive. Jeddah came 128th.
JEDDAH: VIVA Bahrain, an STC Group subsidiary, achieved another key milestone since the beginning of its operations in March 2010. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in Bahrain announced that VIVA is the has achieved an advanced position in terms of quality of telecommunications services among other mobile telecommunications providers in Bahrain.
This achievement comes as part of an independent report issued by the Authority in late 2010 through Directique, an independent consultation firm.
CANBERRA: Australia unveiled its most sweeping economic reform in decades on Sunday with a plan to tax carbon emissions from the nation’s worst polluters, reviving hopes of stronger global climate action with the largest emissions trade scheme outside Europe.
BEIJING: China’s import growth fell sharply to its slowest pace in 20 months in June in further evidence of the broad impact of monetary tightening on the economy, while a wider trade surplus suggested capital inflows will remain a challenge for authorities.
BEIJING: China's annual inflation accelerated to a three-year high in June, increasing the chances that the central bank will keep raising interest rates to tame price pressures that are spreading beyond food and energy.
WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund’s executive board on Friday approved a disbursement of about 3.2 billion euros to help Greece pay debts due this month.
RIYADH: Riyadh-based International Company for Water and Power Projects (ACWA Power), has signed an agreement in Dubai with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), member of the World Bank Group, to improve a power project in Jordan.
JEDDAH: A leading Saudi architect is of the view that the real estate bubble needs to be corrected to realize the government’s vision of decent housing for all.
NEW YORK: US stocks dropped on Friday and the Nasdaq looked to end an eight-day winning streak as a weak jobs report dashed hopes the economy was emerging from a soft patch, though the start of earnings season next week kept investors engaged.
KIRISHI, Russia: Russia will increase oil production by less than 1 percent this year, to 508-509 million tons, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at an industry meeting on export duty for oil and product exports. Russia produced around 505 million tons last year.
SUN VALLEY, Idaho: Google is leaving open the door to more co-operation with social-media giants Facebook and Twitter, and believes there is room for multiple social networks as it rolls out its own, executive chairman Eric Schmidt said.
SEOUL: Profit at Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest maker of memory chips and televisions, fell by a quarter as weak earnings at its flat screen unit dragged, underlying the conglomerate’s struggle to return to last year’s record profit. A bleak outlook for computers and TVs and a wobbly global economy is overshadowing robust sales of Samsung’s new version of its flagship Galaxy S smartphone, which has emerged as a major competitor to Apple’s blockbuster iPhone.
MANAMA: Bahrain-based AlBaraka Banking Group has signed a Murabaha facility of $20 million to finance foreign trade with the International Islamic Trade Finance (IITF).
