Algeria has applied to join the BRICS group and submitted a request to become a shareholder member of BRICS Bank with an amount of $1.5 billion, Ennahar TV quoted Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune as saying, Reuters reported. It added that Tebboune said at the end of his visit to China that Algeria had sought to join the BRICS to open new economic opportunities. The North Africa country is rich in oil and gas resources and seeking to diversify its economy and strengthen its partnership with countries such as China.
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Nearly 70% of Israeli startups have taken action to relocate parts of their business outside Israel, a survey released on Sunday by an Israeli non-profit organisation on the government's planned judicial overhaul found, Reuters reported. The survey by Start-Up Nation Central sought to measure the economic impact plans by the hard-right coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that would restrict the Supreme Court's powers to strike down legislation.
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A millionaire 'magic circle' lawyer who sailed the seas on a £17 million superyacht is facing bankruptcy after failing to hand a £19 million investment fund back to a Saudi princess, the Daily Mail reported. Former lawyer Ronald Gibbs has been locked in a court fight with the Saudi Royal Family after he agreed to set up and manage the multi-million-pound investment fund for Princess Deema Bint Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in 2011.
Troubled governments that devalue their currencies tend to benefit from the decision, underscoring the tool’s usefulness in the face of crisis, according to the Institute of International Finance, Bloomberg reported. There’s been a pivot toward economic growth in countries just three years after authorities opt for major currency devaluations, economists Robin Brooks and Jonathan Fortun found in an analysis of the 51 largest and most-persistent episodes since 1990.
The Iranian government has decided to merge 18 retirement funds in response to a budget deficit of 3,000 trillion rials (approximately $6 billion) and its increasing debt to these funds, Iran Focus reported. Retirement funds in Iran are called “time bombs,” not because they are all considered bankrupt, but because they can lead to the destruction of both the economy and the Iranian society, along with bankruptcy.
Moroccan transport companies are being seriously threatened by the Schengen visa obstacles they keep on facing, Istiqlalian MP Jamal Diwany from the House of Representatives has said, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported. Addressing a question to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Morocco, Nasser Bourita, on the measures it plans to take to facilitate the movement of truck drivers, Diwany said that several companies are being threatened with bankruptcy due to Schengen visa issues.
Dubai is reprimanding BitOasis, one of the largest crypto platforms focused on customers in the Middle East, for failing to meet mandated conditions set forth by the local regulator, Bloomberg News reported. The emirate, which pitches itself as a global crypto hub, has been tightening scrutiny of license seekers since last year’s bankruptcy of FTX. Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority issued an alert on Monday, saying it initiated an enforcement action against BitOasis.
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Egypt has signed contracts to sell stakes in state assets worth a total of $1.9 billion as part of a programme to boost the private sector and raise scarce hard currency, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The contracts include a deal to sell minority stakes in three companies to Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ for $800 million, and a deal to raise $700 million by increasing the capital of a company that owns a group of hotels in Egypt, said Planning Minister Hala el-Said.
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The Bank of Israel left short-term borrowing rates unchanged on Monday for the first time in more than a year amid signs of easing inflation, but warned that rates could still be hiked further if the moderation in price growth did not continue, Reuters reported. The central bank kept its benchmark rate at 4.75% - its highest level since late 2006. It had raised rates 10 straight times in an aggressive tightening cycle that has taken the rate from 0.1% last April. "Inflation is broad and remains high.
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Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley has been plunged into a multimillion-pound bankruptcy row with a Greek shipping tycoon, The Telegraph reported. Ms Staveley, who helped Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund acquire the Premier League club in 2021, has asked the High Court to prevent shipping magnate Victor Restis from forcing her into bankruptcy, new filings reveal. Mr Restis claims Ms Staveley has failed to repay a loan of more than £35m that dates back to over a decade.
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