IN 2008 Ethiopia’s conservative central bank experimented: it authorised interest-free banking. Interest is prohibited under sharia law, so the move was lauded as a step towards expanding financial services for the country’s large and often poor Muslim minority. But momentum soon stalled. An attempt to launch a fully-fledged Islamic bank foundered. Today most of Ethiopia’s […]
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STONECUTTERS ISLAND in Hong Kong used to be a favoured habitat for poisonous snakes and eye-catching birds such as the white-bellied sea eagle. Thanks to Hong Kong’s rapid development, it is no longer so hospitable. Its sky is full of gantry cranes, stacking 20-foot-long shipping containers in multicoloured tessellations, like giant Lego bricks. A cluster […]
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A FEW months into Donald Trump’s presidency, the headlines about travel to America were dire. “US Travel Industry Fears a ‘Lost Decade’ Under Trump,” Bloomberg warned. “Trump Slump Could Take a $1.3 Billion Toll on US Travel Spending,” the travel-news site Skift stated. “US Travel Industry Fears Trump Slump,” reported The Hill, which quoted the […]
Read moreAccording to new research by Harvard University, almost 40 million Americans cannot afford to pay for housing. Homeownership has gone down and rental prices keep going up, meaning that millions of residents are forced to pay way more than they should. Homeownership keeps declining, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies’ detailed and comprehensive […]
Read moreU.S. producer prices unexpectedly rose in June as sustained increases in the cost of services offset declining energy prices, suggesting a recent moderation in inflation was likely temporary. The Labor Department said on Thursday its producer price index for final demand ticked up 0.1 percent last month after being unchanged in May. In the 12 […]
Read moreThe number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell last week for the first time in a month, the latest indication of labor market strength that is sustaining economic growth. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 247,000 for the week ended July 8, the Labor Department said on Thursday. […]
Read moreCurrency, United States Finance
Germany has reacted to last year’s foreign dealmaking frenzy by raising the bar on criteria for overseas acquirers seeking to snap up domestic targets in tech-heavy industries. A new directive adopted on Wednesday broadens the remit of an existing law which currently enables the government to block a non-European Union (EU) buyer from acquiring more […]
Read moreDo you earn enough to settle down in the swankiest parts of America? A 2017 GOBankingRates report that determined what it costs to live in the most expensive ZIP codes across the country will help you find out. The site looked at the cost of living in each ZIP code, factoring in median home values […]
Read moreWith the third Amazon Prime Day now over, industry experts are contemplating whether the e-commerce giant’s annual day of deals will ever achieve the same status as consumer calendar events like Cyber Monday and Black Friday. “Amazon is absolutely trying to create an event with the retail black-hole-like gravitational field of a Black Friday or […]
Read moreBritish Prime Minister Theresa May said she cried a “little tear” when an exit poll revealed she had failed to win an overall majority in a June 8 snap election. May told BBC radio she felt “devastated” when the results came in, revealing she had lost her parliamentary majority, despite her call on Britons to […]
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