Business

The Iraqi Economic Council member, Ghadir al-Attar announced on Thursday that the visit of French President, Emmanuel Macron to the country will witness signing a contract for the construction of Baghdad suspension train. Al-Attar said in a statement today that “French President, Emmanuel Macron will visit the capital Baghdad during …

Saudi Arabia should consider raising a value added tax (VAT) to 10% from the current 5%, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said, stressing the importance for the world’s top oil exporter to improve its fiscal position amid lower crude prices. Saudi Arabia introduced a 5% VAT in January 2018 to …

Iraq’s oil minister Thamer Ghadhban said it would reduce oil production from October. “We are committed to the agreement to reduce production,” , he said in a statement on Sunday. The statement also said Baghdad’s talks over unifying oil exports with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region were in “advanced stages”.  

Oil prices rose nearly 3% on Wednesday, boosted by a wider market pickup on positive news from China’s services sector, after three days of losses due to fears about a weakening global economy. Brent crude LCOc1 was up $1.55, or 2.66%, at $59.81 a barrel by 1401 GMT, while U.S. …

Iraqi and Jordanian officials announced that Amman would receive its first shipment this week of a planned 10,000 barrels per day (BPD) of oil from Iraq’s province of Kirkuk as apart of an agreement made between the two neighboring countries in early 2019. Hala Zawati, Jordan’s Minister of Energy and …

Philip Morris International Inc and Altria Group Inc are discussing an all-stock merger, potentially reuniting two of the world’s largest tobacco companies in a bid to dominate the fast-growing electronic-cigarette market. Shares of Altria, which was spun out of Philip Morris more than a decade ago, rose more than 6% …

Electric carmaker Tesla (TSLA.O) is scouting out locations for a possible factory in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany’s most populous state, daily Rheinische Post reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter. First inspections have taken place, the paper said. Tesla spokespeople in Europe were not …

China’s crude oil imports from Venezuela plunged 62% in July from the previous month, Chinese customs data showed on Sunday, as growing tension between Washington and the Maduro government made buyers wary of taking oil from the South American exporter. Arrivals of crude oil from Venezuela were 703,742 tonnes last …

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he has ordered American companies to exit China after Beijing unveiled retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. goods, throwing a new twist into the bitter trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Trump said on Twitter he will issue a response …

American billionaire industrialist David Koch, a major financier of political candidates who supported gay rights, same-sex marriage, and stem-cell research, has died at age 79, his brother has announced. “It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my brother David,” Charles Koch said in a statement …

Many African Americans have difficulty accumulating savings in part because they lack access to mainstream financial services like banking, a new study on the contributing factors to the U.S. racial wealth gap by McKinsey & Co found on Tuesday. Many minorities in the United States depend on more expensive financial …

Samsung shipped more phones in Europe in Q2 2019 than Huawei and Apple combined. Samsung’s revamped Galaxy A series of phones has helped the company to significantly increase its market share in the European market. According to data from Canalys, Samsung’s market share surged to its highest in over five …

Kuwait is “fully committed” to implementing an agreement between oil exporting countries to cut production in order to support crude prices, Oil Minister Khaled al-Fadhel said on Monday. He said his country has cut its own output by more than required by this agreement. “The compliance of Kuwait was close …

Iraq’s oil ministry said on Saturday it was still in talks with U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil over a major deal to improve the country’s southern oil infrastructure. An agreement with Britain’s BP and Italy’s Eni was not part of the $53 billion, 30-year mega-project. It covered the building of two …

The British economy shrank in the second quarter for the first time since 2012 as Brexit uncertainties weighed on business investment and firms reduced their stockpiling after Britain’s departure from the European Union was postponed, official figures showed Friday. The decline is set to raise an alarm that Brexit uncertainty …

Iraq is close to reaching a deal with oil majors BP and Eni for an export pipeline project that was initially planned as part of a mega-deal with U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil, according to five senior Iraqi oil officials involved in the negotiations. Under the proposed $400 million agreement, British …

The container ship “MSC GULSUN”, the largest in the world, will cross the canal on Thursday, Suez Canal Authority spokesman Tarek Hassanein announced. Hassanein said that the channel’s chairman, General Mohab Mamish, will oversee the crossing of the ship. He stressed that the channel “will take all measures to secure …

US stocks plunged on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling more than 450 points, as investors were spooked by the latest signals from the bond market that pointed to a heightened risk of a recession. US Treasury yields took another dramatic drop and the premium on three-month bill …

Britain has signed a 350 million pound ($425 million) contract with Rolls-Royce (RR.L) to provide maintenance for the engines of Typhoon fighter jets. The 346.7 million pound contract will provide maintenance support for the EJ200 engine up to 2024. The Typhoon forms the backbone of the RAF’s fighter jet fleet. …

Oil prices gained about 3% on Friday a day after recording their biggest daily drop in several years on U.S. President Donald Trump’s vow to impose more tariffs on Chinese imports. For the week, crude oil benchmarks recorded a loss. Washington’s new tariffs on China, due to take effect on …