Qatari Investments In Germany Reach 25bn: Chamber Offi

2Gulf TimesSunday, June 30, 2019BUSINESSIran’s Opec veteran weathers storms from Trump to SaudiBloombergTehran/LondonIran’s Bijan Namdar Zanganeh is Opec’slongest serving oil minister.During 14 years spent shuttling betweenTehran and the group’s Vienna headquarters, he’s proved himself adept at boththe closed-door talks, where policy getsdecided, and the uniquely chaotic brandof public diplomacy ministers use to talkto the global oil market.But he arrives for Monday’s meeting, his48th, under pressure on several fronts.Iran’s oil exports have plunged after President Donald Trump resurrected sanctions,crippling the economy and forcing Tehraninto a dangerous cycle of brinkmanshipwith the US.Meanwhile, the policy agenda of theOrganization of Petroleum ExportingCountries is largely set by bitter rival SaudiArabia. And Zanganeh is under attack atDeal to extend Opec cuts by 6 to 9 monthsRussian President VladimirPutin struck a deal with SaudiCrown Prince Mohammedbin Salman to extend theOpec agreement at currentproduction levels for the restof this year and potentiallyinto early 2020, according toBloomberg.Speaking at the Group of 20summit in Japan, the Russianpresident said the extensionof output cuts – which expireat the end of June – could befor six or nine months. Hiscomments make the outcomeof next week’s Opec gathering in Vienna all buta foregone conclusion, andfurther reinforce Putin’s roleas the ultimate policy makerwithin the group.Saudi Arabia and Russia havejoined forces to manage theglobal oil market in an effortto prop up prices. The currentversion of the deal by theso-called Opec coalition callsfor production cuts of 1.2mnbarrels a day.“We have agreed: we willcontinue our agreements,”Putin said in Osaka. “In anyevent we will support thecontinuation of agreements,both Russia and Saudi Arabia,in the volumes previouslyagreed.” The announcementmarks the first time a seniorleader from the group hasindicated the curbs could beneeded into 2020. That reflectsa sombre outlook for oil supplyand demand next year due to acombination of slowing globaleconomic growth and rising USshale output.The Russia-Saudi dealfollowed an agreement madeearlier in Osaka between theUS and Chinese presidentsto restart trade talks, andcomments by Donald Trumpthat he wouldn’t impose newduties on Beijing for now.home from hardliners who see him as partof a reformist clique that botched rapprochement with the west.None of that makes him irrelevant. In recent years, Zanganeh, 67, has proved ableto make the best of a bad hand. His goalwill be to show fellow ministers – not tomention a domestic audience anxious tosee Iran assert itself internationally – thatthe country can’t be ignored.He believes Opec is being underminedas Saudi Arabia prioritises its bilateralrelationship with Russia, a country that’snot even an official member but the mostimportant player in the broader Opec alliance created in 2016.“Opec is in danger by the unilateralism ofsome members and the organisation facesthe risk of collapse,” he told Iranian newswire Shana in May.In recent weeks, he’s asserted himselfover the seemingly trivial issue of whenOpec should meet. After ministers agreeda June date, Russia insisted the meetingZanganeh: Looking to rehabilitateIran’s energy sector.be delayed until after this week’s G-20summit in Japan. Iran complained, forcingweeks of back and forth before a new datewas settled.Zanganeh had a good working relationship with former Saudi oil minister Ali alNaimi. He has often been willing to go onthe attack. As far back as 2000, during thefirst of his two stints in the job, Zanganehrefused to sign the final communique afteral-Naimi consulted the US Energy Secretary in the middle of the meeting.Those moments have come more oftensince Trump reimposed sanctions in2018. Last June, Zanganeh stormed outof a meeting because he believed SaudiArabia was using sanctions to steal Iran’smarket share. Six months later he forcedthe meeting into a second day in a disputeover whether Iran should be exempt fromcuts.Zanganeh has been one of the IslamicRepublic’s longstanding servants. Hestudied civil engineering at the Universityof Tehran, earning a master’s degree in1977, a year before protest erupted againstShah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s corruptregime.Two years after the 1979 revolution,Zanganeh was made deputy minister forcultural affairs at the Ministry of IslamicGuidance. He oversaw reconstructionprojects for several years during the IranIraq War and became energy minister in1988, the year the war ended.He was made oil minister in 1997 byreformist president, Ali MohammadKhatami. He held the post until MahmoudAhmadinejad was elected in 2005. In hisfirst stint, he tried to attract foreign investment to Iran’s energy industry throughso-called buy back deals where investorswere repaid in crude. France’s Total SAand Norway’s Statoil ASA – now calledEquinor ASA – committed to projects inthe country.After hardliner Ahmadinejad left officein 2013, Zanganeh was returned to hispost by Hassan Rouhani. In the years hespent out of office, oil production plungedunder sanctions imposed by the US andEuropean Union to stymie Iran’s nuclearresearch. Iran had fallen from being Opec’ssecond-largest producer to sixth, severelyweakening its power inside the group.When those sanctions were lifted in 2015,exports started to recover and Zanganehagain sought to bring oil companies back.During Opec meetings, executives wouldqueue outside his Vienna hotel suite todiscuss potential projects.Everything went into reverse after theelection of Trump in 2016. Even beforesanctions were formally reimposed, investors got cold feet and western oil companies including Total and Royal Dutch ShellPlc stopped buying Iranian crude.At home, Zanganeh is under almostconstant pressure from hardliners andright-wing lawmakers who’ve repeatedlytried to have him impeached and removedfrom office. But his record at Opec andefforts to rehabilitate Iran’s energy sectormean he’s developed a reputation amongthe wider public for being an efficient anddedicated technocrat.Zanganeh is still taken seriously in Vienna,where fellow ministers respect his reverence for Opec’s traditional consensus andhis seriousness of purpose.Epic collapse of Dubai-basedAbraaj nets guilty plea in USBloombergNew YorkAformer executive atAbraaj Group pleadedguilty to conspiracycharges and agreed to co-operate with a US probe of a schemethat helped lead to the world’sbiggest private-equity insolvency in 2018.Mustafa Abdel-Wadood, aformer managing partner at theDubai-based firm, appeared infederal court in Manhattan onFriday to admit he lied to investors across the globe in an attempt to hide losses at Abraajand raise more money. He’s oneof six former Abraaj executivesfacing racketeering and securities-fraud charges following aninvestigation by New York prosecutors.The 49-year-old with Egyptian and Maltese citizenshipswas arrested in April in NewYork while on a college-shopping trip with his wife and son.Since then, he has been confined to his home in New Yorkand subject to a 10mn bond.Abdel-Wadood is the only defendant to appear in court in theUS.“I knew at the time that I wasparticipating in conduct thatwas wrong,” Abdel-Wadoodsaid in court, reading slowlyfrom a prepared statement andat times choking back tears.“I ended up drifting fromMustafa Abdel-Wadood, a former managing partner at the Dubai-based firm, appeared in federal court in Manhattan on Friday to admithe lied to investors across the globe in an attempt to hide losses at Abraaj and raise more money. He’s one of six former Abraaj executivesfacing racketeering and securities-fraud charges following an investigation by New York prosecutors.who I really am. For that, I amashamed.”At the hearing, US MagistrateJudge Gabriel Gorenstein saidAbdel-Wadood had agreed toco-operate with prosecutors aspart of a plea agreement. Thejudge asked Abdel-Wadood ifhe understood that he could besentenced to 125 years in prisonif all the terms for each chargewere served consecutively.“I do sir, yes sir,” he replied.Abraaj, which was foundedin 2002 and managed almost 14bn, was the Middle East’sbiggest private equity fund andone of the world’s most influential emerging-market investorswith stakes in healthcare, cleanenergy, lending and real estateacross Africa, Asia, Latin America and Turkey. It was forcedinto liquidation after investorsincluding the Bill & MelindaGates Foundation, commissioned an audit.Abdel-Wadood, who workedat the firm from 2006 to 2018,was charged alongside ArifNaqvi, the founder and exchief executive officer. Fourother former executives werealso charged – chief financialofficer Ashish Dave and managing directors Sivendran Vettivetpillai, Rafique Lakhani andWaqar Siddique. Naqvi gave upcontrol of the firm last year after it was disclosed that revenuehadn’t covered operating costsfor years.During Friday’s hearing, Abdel-Wadood accused Naqvi ofpushing the firm’s executives totake steps that “disadvantagedour investors.”“Some of us pushed back,”Abdel-Wadood said. “Too oftenwe capitulated.”Naqvi was detained in London and released on conditionalbail of 15mn ( 19mn) in Maywhile fighting extradition to theUS, though it took him about amonth to raise the funds. In afiling in that case, Naqvi calledthe bond amount “the largestsecurity ever ordered in the UK.”Abdel-Wadood briefly described for the judge several elements of the alleged conspiracy,all of which related to hidingAbraaj’s poor financial condition and convincing new investors to put up more cash. Thatincluded lying to US-basedinvestors during meetings inManhattan,Abdel-Wadoodsaid, as they sought to raise 3bn for a new fund in 2016. Themoney they raised wasn’t spentthe way investors were told, hesaid.“Put simply, money was comingled that should have beenseparated, and investors werenot told the truth,” Abdel-Wadood said.The case is U.S. v. Naqvi, 19cr-00233, U.S. District Court,Southern District of New York(Manhattan).Iran currency under moreduress as sanctions biteBloombergDubaiIran’s currency is under moreduress now than when a European and US oil embargo was inplace seven years ago.Oxford Economics’ FX Risk Tool,a composite measure of vulnerability to a currency crisis, showsthe rial as the most exposed in theMiddle East and North Africa.Iran’s score is above the level in2012 and suggests a 23% chanceof a currency crisis in the next twoyears, the consultancy said. Although its value is officially fixed,the rial is estimated to have lostmore than 60% on the parallelmarket in the last year.“Iran now has the region’s highest risk of currency distress, signalling further devaluation, amida deepening sanctions-inducedrecession and shrinking domesticpolicy space,” Maya Senussi, senioreconomist at Oxford Economics,said in a report Tuesday.The noose of American penalties is tightening as the Trumpadministration seeks to drive Iranian oil exports to zero to renegotiate the 2015 nuclear accord the USquit a year ago. On Monday, President Donald Trump further raisedthe stakes by imposing sanctionsagainst Iran’s supreme leader andother top officials.Even before the latest round ofA money changer poses for the camera with a US dollar (right) and the amount being given when converting itinto Iranian rials (left), at a currency exchange shop in Tehran’s business district (file). Although its value isofficially fixed, the rial is estimated to have lost more than 60% on the parallel market in the last year.tensions, the International Monetary Fund was warning that Iran’sinflation could reach an average of50% this year, the most since 1980,coupled with an economic contraction of 6%. Price growth in Iran iscurrently estimated at more than50%, according to Oxford Economics, which expects a recession to beas severe as in 2012.Iran’s gross domestic productshrank almost 4% last year, themost since a decline of over 7% in2012, according to the IMF.“Collapsing oil exports, the mainsource of hard currency, coupledwith sanctions on the metal industry – the main source of non-oilexport revenues – is pushing theeconomy into deep recession thisyear,” Senussi said.

Gulf TimesSunday, June 30, 20193BUSINESSIMF chief welcomesthawing of US-Chinaties, says risks remainBloombergOsaka, JapanTariffs already implementedbetween the US and Chinaare holding back the globaleconomy and unresolvedissues carry uncertainty aboutthe future, even though theresumption of trade talksbetween the two countriesis welcome, InternationalMonetary Fund’s managingdirector Christine Lagarde said.“The priority should be toreduce obstacles to trade – newand old, tariffs and otherwise –and to address the underlyingsources of trade tensions anddistortions,” Lagarde said ina written statement at theconclusion of the Group of20 Leaders’ Summit in Osaka,Japan, yesterday.US President Donald Trumpsaid the US was “right back ontrack” with China after a highstakes meeting with PresidentXi Jinping yesterday.The two sides have agreed torestart trade negotiations thatbroke down last month, XinhuaNews Agency reported, addingthat the US agreed not to placenew tariffs on Chinese goods.Xi said meetings should be heldon an equal footing, the reportsaid, while also offering supportto talks with North Koreaand reiterating its claim overTaiwan, a US ally.Trump said the US wouldrelease a statement at about3:30pm local time.Lagarde said in the statementthat the IMF expectsglobal economic growth to“strengthen somewhat” goingforward and the risks to theoutlook “remain serious.”She expressed her supportfor reform of the World TradeOrganisation and for the G-20to address common issuesfrom corporate taxation andfinancial regulatory reform tocorruption and climate change.The IMF head also endorsedthe Osaka Blue Ocean initiativeaimed at reducing new plasticmarine waste.“While the global economyis currently at a precariousstage, with the right policiesand working together, we canovercome the challenges thatwe face and set the worldon a path of stronger, moresustainable, balanced, andinclusive growth,” Lagardesaid.Lagarde: IMF expects global economic growth to “strengthensomewhat” going forward and the risks to the outlook remainserious.Trump says US ‘backon track’ with Chinaafter meeting XiBloombergOsaka, JapanUS President Donald Trump saidthe US was “right back on track”with China after a high-stakesmeeting with Xi Jinping yesterday.Trump called the meeting with Xi “excellent” and said it went better than expected.“We want to do something that willeven it up with respect to trade,” Trumptold Xi at the beginning of their meetingin Japan on the sidelines of the Group of20 summit. “I think it’s something that’sactually very easy to do. I actually thinkthat we were very close and then something happened where we slipped a little bit, and now we’re getting a little bitcloser. But it would be historic.”Xi opened the meeting with a referenceto the ping-pong diplomacy in the 1970sthat paved the way for formal diplomaticties between the US and China.“China and the United States both benefit from co-operation and lose from confrontation,” Xi said in prepared remarks. Atemporary freeze on further US tariffs, aswell as Chinese retaliation, while talks getback under way was discussed by negotiators before the leaders met for lunch, according to people briefed on the talks whoasked not to be identified.After almost a year of trade war, thestakes couldn’t be much higher. A returnto the negotiating table would end a sixweek stalemate that’s unnerved companies and investors, and damp the threatof a further escalation. Failure to do sowould likely upset financial markets already whipsawed by mounting risks to aslowing global expansion.Trump earlier yesterday signalled theUS had made progress in trade discussionswith China ahead of the lunch meeting inJapan, which comes amid growing hopesthe two powers will hit the pause button intheir trade war and resume the search for alonger-term peace.Speaking with reporters yesterday,Trump said that he would be discussingthe US blacklisting of Huawei Technologies Co as well as a broader trade deal. Healso said the two leaders and their negotiators had made progress during preparatory discussions on Friday evening.“A lot was accomplished actually lastnight,” Trump said prior to meeting Xi.“The relationship is very good with China. As to whether or not we can make adeal, time will tell, but the relationshipitself is really great,” Trump said, addingthat he and Xi continued to have “a veryUS President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference following the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, yesterday.Trump called the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping “excellent” and said it went better than expected.good friendship.” Trump’s commentscame after Xi spent much of the summit’sfirst day Friday promising to open up theChinese economy, and chiding – thoughnot naming – the US for its attack on theglobal trading system.In remarks to African leaders on Friday,Xi took a not-so-subtle swipe at Trump’s“America first” trade policy, warningagainst “bullying practices” and addingthat “any attempt to put one’s own interests first and undermine others’ will notwin any popularity.”Any cease-fire would at least temporarily reduce fears that the world’s twolargest economies are headed into a newcold war, though a broader conflict isviewed as increasingly inevitable in bothBeijing and Washington.Concern about the standoff hasprompted investors to bet on centralbank easing, and pile into havens. Treasury yields have tumbled to their lowestlevel in years. The Japanese yen, a traditional beneficiary of flight to quality, hasgained, while the US dollar has slippedacross the board, including against China’s yuan. Stocks have seesawed on eachnew twist in the trade tug-of-war.In that fraught environment, even areturn to negotiations won’t guaranteea deal. Since the talks collapsed on May10, Trump has raised tariffs on 200bnof Chinese goods to 25% from 10%. Inrecent days, he’s indicated that the nextstep could be a 10% tariff on all remaining imports from China – some 300bnworth, from smartphones to children’sclothes.Another big hurdle is last month’s USblacklisting of Huawei on national security grounds, which threatens to cut offthe Chinese giant’s access to Americantechnology. His administration has beenlobbying allies around the world not tobuy Huawei equipment, which the USsays could be used for Chinese espionage.Xi on Friday called out the US overHuawei and said the G-20 should upholdthe “completeness and vitality of globalsupply chains.” China insisted this weekthat Huawei must be removed from theblacklist under any deal.Trump used to cite the reduction ofAmerica’s goods-trade deficit with China – which reached a record 419bn lastyear – as his main aim. But his administration’s focus has shifted to limitingChinese access to US innovation. China’sgovernment has responded with increasingly harsh rhetoric that underscores itsreadiness for a long battle.Other disagreements that caused talksto break down include how to enshrinethe Chinese reforms demanded by theUS, over intellectual property theft andindustrial subsidies, and when and howto lift the tariffs that Trump has come toview as his most powerful economic tool.G20 stops short of denouncing protectionismReutersOsaka, JapanLeaders of the Group of 20 major economieswarned yesterday of growing risks to the global economy but stopped short of denouncingprotectionism, calling instead for a free, fair tradeenvironment after talks some members describedas difficult.In a communique at the end of a two-day meeting in Japan’s western city of Osaka, the leaders saidglobal growth remained low and risks were tiltedto the downside, as trade and geopolitical tensionshave grown.“We strive to realise a free, fair, nondiscriminatory, transparent, predictable and stable trade andinvestment environment, and to keep our marketsopen,” they said in a second successive summitstatement that refrained from urging the need toresist protectionism.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe put on abrave face, stressing the G20 leaders had much incommon, such as a shared recognition of the needfor the group to remain key drivers of global growth.“The G20 agreed on fundamental principles backing a free trade system,” Abe said, adding that thegroup had also pledged stronger action to improvethe dispute settlement system of the World TradeOrganisation (WTO).In preparing the G20 statement, Japan, thechair of the meetings, has sought common groundbetween the United States, which opposes languagedenouncing protectionism, and other nations seeking a stronger warning against trade tension.“There were no breakthrough decisions but.all participants have confirmed their aspiration towork further on improving the global trade system,including the aspiration to work on WTO reform,”Russian President Vladimir Putin told a news conference yesterday.“The fact that all have confirmed the need of thisprocess and their readiness to work toward thisprocess is already positive.”Widening fallout from the US-China trade warhas jolted markets and tested the resolve of G20members to present a united front in averting aglobal recession.The United States and China agreed to restarttrade talks, offering some hope that the world’s twolargest economies can resolve the bitter dispute.The European Union and South American blocMercosur agreed a free trade treaty on Friday,committing to more open markets in defiance of therising tide of protectionism.“This deal promotes our values and supports amultilateral, rules-based system,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters on Saturday, taking a swipe at US PresidentDonald Trump’s aversion to multilateralism.However, Christine Lagarde, managing director ofthe International Monetary Fund, warned the globaleconomy had hit a “rough patch” due to the tradeconflicts, and urged G20 policymakers to reducetariffs and other trade obstacles.“While the resumption of trade talks between theUnited States and China is welcome, tariffs alreadyimplemented are holding back the global economy,and unresolved issues carry a great deal of uncertainty about the future,” she said in a statement.Last year’s G20 summit in Buenos Aires was thefirst to drop the language on the need to denounceprotectionism, deferring to a request by Washington, which is sensitive to criticism of the tariffs it isslapping on some G20 members.From left: Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Spanish President PedroSanchez, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, EU Council President Donald Tusk, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro and European Commission PresidentJean-Claude Juncker attend a press conference at the G20 Osaka Summit in Japan yesterday.Attendees walk past the Huawei Technologies booth at the MWC Shanghai exhibition.US President Donald Trump said yesterday that US companies could sell equipment toChinese telecom giant Huawei, indicating a potentially softer position on a key stickingpoint in the US-China trade war.Trump hints at softer stance on HuaweiAFPOsaka, JapanUS President Donald Trump said yesterday thatUS companies could sell equipment to Chinesetelecom giant Huawei, indicating a potentiallysofter position on a key sticking point in theUS-China trade war.“US companies can sell their equipmentto Huawei,” Trump told reporters in Osakahours after sealing a tariff truce with ChinesePresident Xi Jinping.“We’re talking about equipment wherethere’s no great national security problemwith it.” It was not immediately clear whetherTrump’s comment marked a material changein the stance toward Huawei, which has essentially been barred on national security groundsfrom accessing crucial American technologyor operating in the US market.The US fears that systems built by Huawei– the world leader in telecom network equipment and number two smartphone supplier– could be used by China’s government forespionage via built-in secret security “backdoors”.Huawei vigorously denies that and says theUS has never provided proof to substantiate it.Last month the US government addedHuawei to an “entity list” of companies barredfrom receiving US-made components withoutpermission from Washington.Trump’s comment on its face does not marka change from current practice.But it could be read by financial markets asa positive signal that his administration may beopen to negotiating on Huawei when bilateraltrade talks resume.However, any softening on Huawei couldmeet resistance from a bipartisan US congressional movement that is calling for a hardlineon the firm.A Huawei spokesperson told AFP the company had no initial comment.Trump has imposed tariffs on 200bn ofChinese imports in an effort to force Beijinginto intellectual property protection and otherreforms of a trading system that Washingtonsays gives China huge unfair advantages.But Trump and Xi struck a ceasefire dealyesterday, with Washington vowing to hold offon further tariffs and the two sides agreeing torestart trade negotiations.The Wall Street Journal reported earlier thisweek that Xi planned to ask Trump in Osaka toease up on Huawei as a precondition for signing a possible trade deal.

Gulf TimesSunday, June 30, 20194BUSINESSIndia’s current account deficit narrows to 4.6bn in Q4 of 2018-19IANSMumbaiLower trade deficit narrowed India’scurrent account deficit to 4.6bn in Q4of 2018-19.The Reserve Bank of India’s data onIndia’s Balance of Payments (BoP)showed that CAD narrowed from 13bnIndia’sexternaldebt rises2.6% to 543bnIANSMumbaiIndia’s external debt for thequarter-ended March 2019rose 2.6% or 13.7bn to 543bn on account of an increasein short-term debt, commercialborrowings and non-residentIndian (NRI) deposits.According to the Reserve Bankof India’s external debt statistics released with a lag of onequarter, the country’s debt was 529.3bn at the end of the previous corresponding quarter.“At end-March 2019, India’sexternal debt witnessed an increase of 2.6% over its level atend-March 2018, primarily onaccount of an increase in shortterm debt, commercial borrowings and NRI deposits,” RBI said.“The increase in external debtwas partially offset by valuationgain resulting from the appreciation of the US dollar againstIndian rupee and other majorcurrencies. The external debt toGDP ratio stood at 19.7% at endMarch 2019, lower than its levelof 20.1% at end-March 2018.”In terms of segment, US dollar denominated debt continuedto be the largest component witha share of 50.5% at end-March2019, followed by the Indian rupee (35.7%), Japanese yen (5%),SDR (4.9%) and euro (3%). Inaddition, the RBI data showedsaid that outstanding debt of thegovernment declined, while thatof non-government sector increased at the end-March 2019period.in Q4 of 2017-18 and 17.7bn in thepreceding quarter.“The contraction of the CAD on ayear-on-year (y-o-y) basis was primarilyon account of a lower trade deficit at 35.2bn as compared with 41.6bn ayear ago,” RBI said.“Net services receipts increased by5.8% on a y-o-y basis mainly on theback of a rise in net earnings fromtelecommunications, computer andinformation services.”However, remittances declined by 0.9%to 17.9bn from their level during a yearago period.In the financial account, net foreigndirect investment was stagnant at 6.4bn in Q4 of 2018-19.“Foreign portfolio investment recordednet inflow of 9.4bn in Q4 of 2018-19 –as compared with 2.3bn in Q4 a yearago – on account of net purchases inboth debt and equity market,” the apexbank said.According to the data, there wasan accretion of 14.2bn in foreignexchange reserves (on

Naqvi, the founder and ex-chief executive offi cer. Four other former executives were also charged – chief fi nancial offi cer Ashish Dave and man-aging directors Sivendran Vet-tivetpillai, Rafi que Lakhani and Waqar Siddique. Naqvi gave up control of the fi rm last year af-ter it