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Lebanon donor conference raises billions

Paris (AFP) - International donors pledged $11 billion in low-interest loans and aid for Lebanon at a conference in Paris on Friday to try to avert an economic crisis in a country hard hit by the fallout from the Syrian war. Lebanon's growth has plummeted due to political instability,...

New hope for NAFTA deal as high-level talks begin

The eighth round of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations have been suspended and high-level ministerial representatives will meet instead to push for a deal, it was announced Thursday. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland left for Washington earlier in the day...

Libya's National Oil Corp signs deal with Artelia for new Benghazi offices

Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said Wednesday it had signed a deal with French building and engineering group Artelia to manage the development of its offices in the eastern city of Benghazi. There have been plans for years to move the state oil firm's headquarters from the...

Bahrain announces discovery of 80 bn barrels of oil

Bahrain on Wednesday announced its newly discovered shale oil reserve was estimated at more than 80 billion barrels, making the once-marginal oil producer potentially a major player in the market. The size of recoverable oil -- or oil that can be extracted -- is still under study, Oil...

Cyprus government makes deposit in Co-op Bank ahead of sale

The Cyprus government deposited Tuesday 2.5 billion euros ($3.1 billion) into the island-nation's troubled Cooperative Bank in an attempt to dispel any uncertainty over its future. Government Spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said he hoped the deposit, mainly in the form of a bond issue,...

Turkish exports up in March

Turkey's exports in March totaled $15.5 billion, an 8.01 percent rise compared with the same month in 2017, according to provisional data of the Ministry of Customs and Trade on Monday. The imports climbed 12.77 percent to over $21.4 billion, amounting to a foreign trade deficit of...

Iraq's oil exports from southern ports 3.453 million bpd in March

Iraq exported 3.453 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from its southern ports in March, slightly above the February average, the oil ministry said Sunday. Iraq's exports from the ports, managed by the central government in Baghdad, averaged 3.426 million bpd in February, down...

Islamic Development Bank gears up for Tunisia summit

Business leaders from Muslim nations will gather in the Tunisian capital on Sunday to review last year's performance by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), and discuss and approve its development agenda for the year ahead. Representatives of 57 member states, senior government officials...

China to spend $300M on improved irrigation in southern Xinjiang

The Chinese government will spend 1.875 billion yuan ($298.92 million) to improve irrigation systems in the heavily ethnic Uighur southern part of the violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang, state news agency Xinhua said on Saturday. The government has increasingly turned its...

Turkey to ease establishment of investment banks

Turkey will take steps to ease the establishment of investment banks in the country, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said late Thursday. "Now, we will take a further step and make the establishment of investment banks in Turkey easier," Simsek said at an award ceremony in Istanbul....

Turkey welcomes 3M tourists in first 2 months of 2018

Turkey welcomed 3 million foreign visitors in the first two months of 2018, the Culture and Tourism Ministry said on Friday. Three million foreign nationals visited Turkey in January and February, up 35 percent from same months in 2017, the ministry said in a statement. Iran...

US, S. Korea overhaul 6-year-old free trade agreement

The Trump administration says a revamped deal with South Korea will give U.S. carmakers more access to the country and will provide protection from competition. Senior administration officials told The Associated Press Tuesday that the United States reached an agreement to overhaul the...

SoftBank, Saudi Arabia announce massive solar power project

SoftBank Group Corp's Vision Fund will invest in creating the world's biggest solar power project in Saudi Arabia, it said on Tuesday, stepping up its involvement in the kingdom and expanding beyond technology. The project is expected to have the capacity to produce up to 200 gigawatts...

China stocks end down as consumer firms weigh

China stocks fell on Wednesday, tracking losses on Wall Street where tech firms were hit hard on concerns over tighter government scrutiny on the industry. At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was down 1.4 percent at 3,122.29, while the blue-chip CSI300 index close down 1.8...

S.Korean auto workers blast revised trade deal with US

Unions at South Korea's two-largest automakers, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, say plans to revise a free trade deal with the United States involve concessions that will prevent local automakers from entering the fast-growing U.S. pick-up truck market. Hyundai's labor union said Tuesday that...

China's opening up not forced by external pressure: commerce minister

BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s opening up is self-initiated and will not be forced by pressure from other countries, the country’s commerce ministry said on Sunday on its official Wechat account. Zhong Shan, the head of the ministry of commerce, made the comments during a meeting...

Moody's: US tariffs manageable for rated Chinese firms

The U.S. plan to impose tariffs on Chinese imports and China's planned reciprocal tariffs would have a limited effect on Moody's rated Chinese companies, said the ratings agency on Friday. The impact on Moody's rated Chinese firms would be manageable, as most of them rely heavily on...

Air France strike as unions turn up heat on Macron

Air France crew went on strike Friday, forcing the cancellation of about a quarter of the airline's flights as unions discussed further protests against reformist President Emmanuel Macron. Pilots, cabin crew and ground staff joined the strike at Air France to push for a 6.0-percent...