New York, United States - Oil prices fell over 2 percent in volatile trading on Monday as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank roiled equities markets and raised fears of a fresh financial crisis, but a recovery in Chinese demand provided support, Reuters reported. Brent crude futures settled down $2.01,...

Abu Dhabi, UAE--Commending the UAE for being in the forefront of the drive to improve gender balance in the country, Iva Hamel, the World Bank representative in the UAE, said the UAE is the most progressive country in the Middle East and North Africa in terms of women’s empowerment. She...

Washington, United States--President Joe Biden sought to reassure Americans over the country's financial system Monday as more US banks and leading European lenders were hammered amid contagion worries. Silicon Valley Bank -- a key lender to startups across the United States since the 1980s -- collapsed after a sudden run on...

Banking experts have been among those alarmed at the rapid collapse of SVB, the country's 16th biggest bank by assets and how its demise became a harbinger of Sunday's failure of another lender, Signature Bank. The failures have "exposed the inadequacy of regulatory reforms that have been made since the...

Istanbul, Turkey - Turkey's current account deficit increased to $9.85 billion in January, the highest monthly deficit since 1984, the first year for which such a record is available, according to figures from the central bank released on Monday. The increase was caused by a rising energy cost and imports...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia--Saudi Arabia and South Korea have signed multiple memorandum of understandings aimed at supporting SMEs, along with enabling entrepreneurs to enter the field with more confidence and emphasis. The two countries also looked at ways to enhance cooperation in the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation, as the Kingdom’s...

Just days ahead of the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion that resulted in war, chaos, and political instability, Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said that his government had prepared a three-year budget for the oil-dependent economy traditionally plagued by budgetary delays. The bill will include financial aid to...

Russia has agreed to extend the Ukraine grain export deal following talks with the United Nations - but only for a further 60 days. Moscow said it wanted to see "tangible progress" on a parallel agreement on Russian exports before the deal comes up for renewal again.

Diplomats from nearly 200 nations and top climate scientists begin a week-long huddle in Switzerland Monday to distill nearly a decade of published science into a 20-odd-page warning about the existential danger of global warming, and what to do about it. Since its creation in 1988, the IPCC - an...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the government wants to avoid financial "contagion" from the SVB implosion, as it ruled out a bailout. With the bank's future, and its billions in deposits up in the air, officials from the three agencies, The Fed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Treasury,...

In a rescue deal, it bought SVB for a nominal price of $1.2.

Beijing, China--China's new premier warned Monday that the country's five-percent growth target for 2023 would not be "easy" to achieve, as its rubber-stamp parliament wrapped up over a week of meetings. The government set the economic growth target of "around five percent" this month, one of the lowest in decades as China...

Cairo, Egypt--Egypt’s export to China increased by 20.8 percent to $1.7 billion in the first 11 months of 2022, compared to $1.4 billion in the same period in 2021, according to Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, also known as CAPMAS.  Egypt’s imports from China totaled $13.2 billion...

Shares in ADNOC Gas were heavily oversubscribed even after the offering was expanded from 4.0 to 5.0 percent of issued share capital in response to strong interest.

Princess Iman, the eldest daughter of King Abdullah and Queen Rania, has wed a financier of Greek origin at a ceremony at the royal palace west of the capital Amman. The ceremony broadcast on state television showed the princess tying the knot with Jameel Alexander Thermiotis in the presence of...

Global economic challenges have led the UAE to review priorities and investment trends, with a focus on five key sectors: healthcare, transport and logistics, agriculture and food security, technology and green energy.

London, United Kingdom--The BBC's director general Tim Davie said he will not resign after the publicly-funded broadcaster's sport service was decimated on Saturday by a backlash to Gary Lineker's removal as Match of the Day host. "Everyone wants to calmly resolve the situation," Davie said in a BBC interview. Lineker was...

It posted $161bn profits last year on high oil prices.

The Chinese government has confirmed Yi Gang as governor of the People's Bank of China, against expectations that retirement-age Yi would step down, besides retaining other important top economic officials. The cabinet faces the task of revitalizing the Chinese economy, which last year expanded just three percent.

The FDIC on Friday took over SVB, a major lender to the tech world, in the second-largest bank failure in US history. The bank is expected to reopen on Monday under a new name.

Iraq has scuttled a big smuggling operation of bringing into the country a large consignment of three million pills of captagon, an amphetamine-type stimulant sweeping the Middle East for year, near the Syrian border. The pills had been hidden in apple crates and discovered at the Al-Qaim crossing near Iraq's...

Dubai, UAE--The Indonesian Investment Forum kicked off in Dubai to lure businesses and investments. The two-day event aimed to explore opportunities to attract foreign direct investment and expand markets for export-oriented products. It was hosted by Bank Indonesia in partnership with KJRI Dubai, the Indonesian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, the Indonesia...

Tunis, Tunisia--More than 1,000 Africans trying to reach Europe have been rescued in a single night off Tunisia, the coast guard said Friday, after a wave of violence against black migrants. Last month President Kais Saied ordered officials in the North African country to take "urgent measures" to tackle irregular migration,...

The region will benefit from investment in training institutes for nursing and health professionals, Amanat Holding CEO Mohamed Hamade tells TRENDS during an interview.

Cairo, Egypt - Egypt's official annual headline inflation rate rose in February to 31.9 percent, the highest in five and a half years, while core inflation soared to a record 40.26 percent, according to official data reported Thursday by Reuters. The jump in inflation is likely to further squeeze households...

DOHA, QATAR - Just US$1.4 billion in new loans and grants were promised at a UN summit devoted to the world's poorest nations where UN leader Antonio Guterres had appealed for massive aid, officials said Thursday. A top UN envoy warned at the end of the five-day Least Developed Countries meeting...

Delay has had no effect on its annual financial statement.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia's Industrial Production Index increased by 6.8 percent in Jan 2023, compared to Jan 2022, mainly due to the increase in mining, quarrying manufacturing activities. A monthly bulletin by the General Authority for Statistics said the mining and quarrying activity increased by 3 percent year...

The growth rate is also the highest in the last decade, with crude oil and natural gas contributing 32.7%, government services 14.2%, and manufacturing other than oil refining 8.6%.

China's consumer price inflation last month fell to its lowest level in a year, official data showed Thursday, as the country emerged from strict pandemic controls and a Lunar New Year spending binge. February's consumer price index (CPI) - the main gauge of inflation - rose one percent, down from...

Dubai, UAE--TAQA Morocco is looking to invest $1.6 billion in renewable energy solutions in Morocco in order to lift up electricity production by 50 percent by 2030.  Owned by Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., the company plans to diversify its activities in clean energy and water desalination as part of...

Vienna, Austria - The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) is offering a US$25 million loan for solar energy development in Niger, scaling up electrification and access to renewable energy in the country. The loan will be provided to Solar Plant Development and Electricity Access Improvement Project (RANAA). The OPEC...

Washington, United States--President Joe Biden will unveil a proposed budget on Thursday that would reduce the US national deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade, in part by raising taxes, the White House said. The budget plan "will cut the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over the next 10 years,"...

Beirut, Lebanon - Lebanon's commercial banks do not have enough liquidity to pay back depositors, the secretary general of the country's banking association said on Wednesday The letter that laid out the banks' positions, was signed by the Association of the Banks of Lebanon (ABL)'s Fadi Khalaf.  The letter said...

Decades of unsustainable policies and fundamental neglect, capture of state resources by elites, alleged corruption, and vested interests cripple the power sector in Lebanon.

According to state newspaper Al-Ahram, a decision by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli published in the official gazette,  says the premier can now "grant Egyptian nationality" to applicants that meet one of four conditions. Foreigners can either buy at least $300,000 of real estate in Egypt, invest $350,000 in the country,...

Reacting to howls of condemnation his controversial comments have ignited, Tunisia's President Kais Saied on Wednesday denied racism. Last month, the president ordered officials to take "urgent measures" to tackle irregular migration, claiming that a "criminal plot" was underway to change Tunisia's demographic makeup.

Last week, Lagarde said that more interest rate hikes might be needed in the eurozone after the half percentage point hike it has already signaled will come later this month.

"We're seeing robust hiring, which is good for the economy and workers, but pay growth is still quite elevated," said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, in a statement.

Dubai, UAE-- Making payments digitally for every purchase may have become a universal thing, but it is not always the safest method, according to a new survey by Kaspersky. The survey revealed that some 18% of respondents from the Middle East experienced financial losses associated with threats when using online...

Doha, Qatar-- In order to ensure education for children in the least developed countries of Asia and Africa, Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and the Education Above All Foundation (EAA) signed four Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with Senegal, Bangladesh, Liberia, and Burkina Faso. The four MoUs focus on opportunities to...

Abu Dhabi, UAE-- The UAE and Jordan have resolved to draw on each other's experiences in order to combat corruption, and increase competence in the field of auditing. In this regard, a delegation from the UAE, headed by the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) and participants from Abu Dhabi Accountability Authority...

In the latest rail tragedy to hit Egypt, two people were killed and many more injured at Qalyub north of Cairo. According to the country's health ministry, the injured are in a stable condition. An earlier toll provided by the ministry said that one person died and 16 were wounded,...

The World Bank estimated last week that the devastating quake, which flattened entire cities, had caused damage worth more than $34 billion in Turkey, with recovery likely to double that sum. But Louisa Vinton of the UN Development Program said the Turkish government had calculated far higher damage.

Migrants from sub-Saharan Africa faced violence and many were made homeless since Saied ordered "urgent measures" against them. In response, World Bank defers a key board meeting on Tunisia.

Emtelle to invest $50m to build manufacturing facility.

In a statement, HESC said the project has entered its commercial demonstration phase with money from Japan's Green Innovation Fund, which will be used to design and build facilities to liquefy and ship hydrogen from Australia's Victoria to Japan. The project aims to produce and liquefy hydrogen from a type...

Doha, Qatar-- Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdul Aziz Al Thani has resigned from his job, according to Qatar News Agency. And in the wake of the resignation, the country's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has appointed Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani in...

Dubai, UAE--Agility Logistics Parks (ALP) today announced the launch of data center campus sites in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and Ghana. The sites are being readied at ultra-modern ALP warehousing complexes in fast-growing markets and mega-cities that are looking to add hyperscale data center capacity and resolve data latency, security...

Muscat, Oman -Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) is set to award solar energy projects worth $777 million to international investors after securing approvals from the Authority for Public Services Regulation (APSR). According to media reports, the Manah 1 and 2 projects, which will jointly produce a total of...