Here’s what you need to know in UAE business and globally on this Monday morning:
• Is this the end of the oil price pain?
From those painful lows of Brent oil in the region of $28 earlier this year, it feels like the storm clouds are lifting after a gain of almost a third in the past few weeks. Has the production freeze agreed by the likes of Saudi and Russia done the trick? Or will softening seasonal demand send the price tumbling back down again?
• UAE expats feeling the pinch
We're all aware of the economic effects that the low oil price has had during the past few months, and it is affecting everyday lives too as can be seen by our most read story over the weekend. Personal Finance columnist Nima Abu Wardeh's 'UAE expats prices out of their lives' was written back in November, 2014, but has gone viral during the past few days.
• Central banks looking shaky
That’s according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) which yesterday voiced concerns over sub-zero interest rates and emerging economies. “The latest turbulence has hammered home the message that central banks have been overburdened for far too long post-crisis,” the head of the BIS monetary and economics department, Claudio Borio, said in its first quarterly report of the year.
“Market participants have taken notice. And their confidence in central banks’ healing powers has - probably for the first time - been faltering.”
• Arabtec powers up
The Dubai contractor's shares experienced an extraordinary week last time around - gaining the most in seven years as they rose 42 per cent. And it continued yesterday as well, gaining another 13 per cent.
• Moody’s warning
The credit ratings of more than 10 oil producing nations in the developing world, including the UAE, were placed on review for a downgrade by Moody's Investors Service over the weekend. It cited the shock of depressed oil prices on these economies.
business@thenational.ae
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