Latest Posts

  • News 0

    Vodafone wins landmark tax battle

    India’s Supreme Court on Friday ruled that telecoms group Vodafone will not be liable to pay more than RS13,500 crore ($2.7bn) in tax related to an acquisition five years ago. Vodafone, which is the world’s largest mobile phone company, won a landmark tax dispute regarding an $11.5bn purchase of a 67 percent stake in mobile phone operator Hutchinson Essar. The country’s highest court found that Indian tax officials did not have jurisdiction over a deal between two international companies, even with the assets located in India. The original agreement in 2007 was between Vodafone International Holdings, the Dutch subsidiary of Vodafone, a...
    On January 20, 2012 / By
  • News 0

    Israeli hackers bring down Arab monetary websites

    Israeli hackers on Tuesday claimed to have taken down the Saudi Arabian and UAE stock exchange websites. The group of hackers, who call themselves IDF Team- an acronym for Israeli Defence Forces, was able to temporarily paralyse the two websites. The IDF Team said that the hits came in retaliation for an attack on Monday by a group of Saudi-based hackers, named Nightmare, who shut down the sites for Tel Aviv stock exchange and Israeli airline El Al’s. The  hackers warned in a statement: “Pathetic hackers from Saudi Arabia decided to launch an attack against Israeli sites (…) if these continue, we will move to the next level, which will...
    On January 18, 2012 / By
  • News 0

    Egypt seeks $3.2bn IMF help

    Egypt’s government is in discussions with the International Monetary Fund about the possibility of obtaining a $3.2bn loan package to help support its economic reform. An IMF delegation arrived in Cairo on Monday to discuss the loan package which is to assist Egypt in bridging the gap in its state budget for the fiscal year 2011/2012. Follow-up discussions are due to be continued by the end of the month. Egypt’s deficit pushed wider last year following almost a year of economic and political turmoil. The country’s previous army-backed authorities had earlier turned down $3bn in IMF assistance, but since then the situation has worsened a...
    On January 17, 2012 / By
  • News 0

    Euro falls to 11-year low against yen

    The euro on Monday fell to an 11-year low versus the yen following a mass downgrade that stripped France and Austria of their AAA rating and cut eight further sovereigns. Europe’s currency dropped to its lowest point since 2000 to reach 97.10, compared with 97.59 on Friday.  Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average dropped 1.43 percent, South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.9 percent and China’s Shanghaio Composite lost 1.71 percent. Standard & Poor’s late on Friday also cut the ratings of Spain, Cyprus, and Portugal by two notches. Italy, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia all saw their ratings dropped by one notch. Portugal’s downgrade has now relegat...
    On January 16, 2012 / By
  • News 0

    Chinese fx reserves plunge by $20.5bn in Q4

    China’s vast foreign exchange reserves showed on Friday their first quarterly drop since 1998. The decline was partly attributed to a slowing Chinese economy and capital outflows amid worldwide economic ambiguity. Reserves fell by $20.5bn to $3.18trn in the final quarter of 2011, said the People’s Bank of China.Net quarterly decreases are rare for China, which is momentarily the largest holder of foreign exchange reserves globally. On a year-on-year basis, however, the country’s fx reserves still expanded from its previous $2.85trn at the end of 2010, the bank said....
    On January 13, 2012 / By
  • News 0

    Argentina to introduce new restrictions to curb imports

    Argentina will enforce new restrictions on consumer goods’ imports by February in an effort to remedy its retreating trade surplus, according to a resolution published by the Revenue Office. The new regime will require importers to file a sworn statement of planned imports to the tax agency “prior to the issuing of the request, purchase order, or similar document used for completing overseas purchasing operations.” The statement will be checked by the correct authorities for an unspecified amount of time Officials will then give their consent or refusal to the person making the import application. In the first 11 months of 2011 imports ...
    On January 12, 2012 / By
  • News 0

    Chinese to boost Gulf energy ties

    Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is scheduled to start a six day visit to the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to discuss the country’s energy policy, China’s foreign ministry said late on Tuesday. During the trip he will meet leaders of the three nations to “promote the development of China-Arab dealings and relations with the Islamic world,” its foreign minister Liu Weimin said. Saudi Arabia is currently China’s largest supplier of crude while Qatar has emerged as its biggest supplier of liquefied natural gas. Beijing is likely to soon overtake Washington as the biggest buyer of Saudi Arabian oil. Weimin’s announcement comes at a time when...
    On January 11, 2012 / By
  • News 0

    Bank of Japan snubs call for more easing as Standard & Poor’s downgrades debt

    Japan’s central bank has announced that it has already done enough to combat deflation, brushing off yet another call for more action from the ranks of the ruling party. Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Hirohide Yamaguchi dismissed a suggestion from a Democratic Party lawmaker that the central bank should consider scrapping a self-imposed cap on its government bond purchases to be able to buy more debt and reflate the economy. Yamaguchi told a parliamentary committee there could be turmoil in financial markets if they got the impression that the central bank was directly financing government debt. “We are aware that if the BOJ’s lo...
    On January 10, 2012 / By
  • News 0

    Hildebrand exits SNB after failing to prove innocence beyond doubt

    Swiss National Bank chair Philipp Hildebrand resigned late on Monday over a controversial personal foreign currency trade undertaken by his wife. Hildrebrand’s wife Kashya had switched SFr400,000 into dollars in mid August, just days before a Swiss National Bank intervention in the FX market. Hildebrand said at a press conference after his resignation: “I came to the conclusion that it is not possible for me to deliver a definite proof that my wife requested the currency transaction without my knowledge. Unfortunately, mistakes were made around this transaction.” Meanwhile, the bank has begun its search for a replacement. Vice Chairman ...
    On January 10, 2012 / By
  • News 0

    India lowers growth rate by 1.5 percent

    India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Sing, on Sunday slashed a previously set forecast for the country’s economic growth rate to seven percent, down from 8.5 percent a year ago. The country was initially estimated to grow around nine percent for the current fiscal year but was scaled down by both the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank at the weekend. “India is going through difficult times. We are up to the task of meeting the challenges we face as a nation,” Singh said. The prime minister told a congregation that he was confident that the economy will return to a growth rate of between nine and 10 percent in the medium term....
    On January 9, 2012 / By