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GCC

Business news and financial news, analysis, opinion and statistics covering the six Gulf Corporation Council members Bahrain, Kuwait,  Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Bicester Village

Middle East shoppers surge at UK’s Bicester Village

Travelling on the train to Bicester Village, do not be surprised if you hear announcements in Arabic as you approach the British designer outlet retail destination an hour from London.  This is just one example of the steps Bicester Village’s parent company Value Retail has taken in recent years to attract more Middle East shoppers.  The […]

Telsa to export China-made Model 3 sedan to Middle East

Tesla showed off its restyled, China-made Model 3 sedan for the first time to the public at a trade fair in Beijing, after launching it a day before in several countries. The US automaker displayed a flame red version of the car – marking the first change to its mass-market car line-up since it launched […]

Iran is exempt from Opec cuts and its exports have been rising in 2023 despite US sanctions

Opec oil output rises despite Saudi’s ongoing cuts

Opec oil output rose in August as Iranian supply rose to its highest since 2018, a Reuters survey found on Thursday, despite ongoing cuts by Saudi Arabia and other members of the wider Opec+ alliance to support the market. Opec has pumped 27.56 million barrels per day (bpd) this month, the survey found, up 220,000 […]

US AI chip restrictions Middle East

US curbs AI chip exports to some Middle East nations

The US has expanded the restriction of exports of sophisticated Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices artificial intelligence (AI) chips beyond China to other regions including some countries in the Middle East. Nvidia said in a regulatory filing this week that the curbs, which affect its A100 and H100 chips designed to speed up machine-learning tasks, […]

Taqa is planning to enter the marine petroleum well services sector, including drilling and exploration in Egypt

Brent is well supported at $80 says Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley expects Brent crude prices to be well supported around $80 per barrel as the oil market is likely to remain in a deficit in the second of half of 2023 before returning to a small surplus next year. “Strong refined products markets and deep Opec cuts have been supporting crude oil prices,” analysts […]

Goldman says high oil stock cuts downside price risk  

Goldman Sachs sees less of a downside risk to oil prices from higher-than-expected inventories, noting that lower Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (Oecd) commercial stocks could add $2 to its end-2023 Brent outlook of $86 per barrel. Oecd commercial stocks, which the Wall Street investment bank estimated were equal to about a third of […]

Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi may travel to Egypt and Jordan as well as meeting with the GCC

Japan’s foreign minister to visit Saudi Arabia

Japan plans to hold a foreign ministers’ meeting with the six member states of the GCC in Saudi Arabia in early September. A free trade deal with the bloc is high on the agenda, said Kyodo news agency, citing diplomatic sources. Japan is aiming to strengthen relations with oil producers in the Middle East to […]

A stronger dollar, rising US treasury yields and a weaker Chinese yuan contributed to the rupee’s descent

Remittances from UAE to rise as Indian rupee weakens

Remittances from the UAE are likely to surge as the Indian rupee remains under pressure in the near term due to rising US treasury yields and a weaker Chinese yuan. The rupee has declined over 1.2 percent from its late-July high to a five-month low at 83 per dollar for the first time in nearly […]

ESG sukuk investors are funding clean energy projects such as wind farms

Cop28 tipped to feed appetite for green sukuk

The Cop28 climate conference in the UAE is expected to boost interest in green sukuk as the market gathers momentum in the GCC, Malaysia and Turkey. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) sukuk – sharia-compliant instruments used to fund renewable energy and other green projects – are set to be a central issuance theme for the remainder […]

Wealthy London districts such as Kensington are attractive to Gulf investors, but they must consider the tax implications of buying property there

Gulf property buyers in the dark over UK ‘death tax’

Whether it is a second home in Kensington or an apartment for their children studying at university, Gulf investors have spent billions on UK property over the decades – but many are oblivious to the tax implications, especially when it comes to inheritance tax. His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) applies 40 percent inheritance tax […]

Newspaper, Text, Adult

Daily Mail seeks Middle East investors for Telegraph bid

The Daily Mail and General Trust has registered its interest with British bank Lloyds for a potential bid for The Telegraph, a spokesperson told Reuters on Saturday. However, while it has been engaging with several parties, DMGT does not yet have any formal plans and there is no consortium, the spokesperson added. Sky News earlier […]

Gulf carbon capture

Gulf geology ideal for carbon capture, say experts

The Gulf’s geology and decades-old oil and gas industry could enable the region to become a world leader in carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), experts believe. Gulf oil producers have been using carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology for more than 40 years to remove the compound from natural gas before it is shipped for […]

IHG hotel

Hotel giant reports room revenue up in Middle East

IHG Hotel & Resorts, whose 18 brands include Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, has reported an 18 percent rise in revenue per available room at its hotels in the Middle East in the second quarter of the year. The company, which is listed in London and New York, said the year-on-year increase in its Middle […]

Traders monitor a screen showing stock information at the Tadawul in Riyadh

Saudi leads ‘very healthy’ GCC IPO pipeline

The GCC remains an attractive region for IPO listings with Saudi Arabia leading a healthy pipeline of planned deals for the rest of the year and beyond, say experts. The Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region recorded a 44 percent jump in listings during the second quarter. By contrast, wider Europe, Middle East, India, […]

Intersect innovation hub palestine startups

Innovation hub helps launch Palestinian startups in Gulf

Startups in Palestine are increasingly expanding in the Gulf as a way of overcoming hurdles such as a lack of access to funding and support systems. Central to their strategy is the Intersect Innovation Hub, a business incubator that is helping to build bridges between Palestinian startups and the Gulf region. Rateb Rabi, CEO of […]