UK sukuk plan could spark wider Islamic finance renaissance October 29, 2013 DAVID CAMERON’s plan to issue a £200m sharia-compliant government bond (a sukuk) may spark a drastic rise in Islamic financial activity in the West, a leading analyst says. “The lack of sharia-compliant debt instruments outside the Muslim world has acted like a funnel, creating a mismatch between supply and demand,” says Sayd Farook, Thomson Reuters’s [...]
Karzai calls for further trade liberalisation October 29, 2013 Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday called for trade liberalisation in order to help poorer nations close the gap with the developed world. Speaking at the opening of the World Islamic Economic Forum, Karzai said that “the challenge of reducing inequality among nations must also be addressed through liberalising trade. In particular, ensuring free access to [...]
Female empowerment crucial to growth October 29, 2013 Malaysian Prime Minister and World Islamic Economic Forum patron Najib Razak gave the opening address of this year’s Forum, using his speech to raise the issue of female labour participation rates in the Islamic World. “It is time to put women at the heart of our economic system,” he said. “Greater involvement of women in [...]
WIEF 2013 today October 29, 2013 Face to Face – Smart Cities ■ 9am to 10am ■ Boris Johnson, mayor of London ■ Lauren Taylor, presenter, Aljazeera English, UK Designing the Future – Why do we need Smart Cities? ■ 10am to 11.30am ■ Neil M Denari, founder, Neil M Denari Architects, United States ■ Professor Dr Uwe Krueger, chief executive, [...]
Kickstart institutional investment to build new homes for generation rent October 29, 2013 INVESTORS have long enjoyed a love/hate relationship with property. An asset class dominated by commercial real estate, it delivers diversification and a reasonable yield in the good times. But in difficult times, upward-only rent reviews vanish, and fund managers are left wrestling with high voids and bad debts. Residential real estate, meanwhile, has largely been [...]
Against the Grain: Why the rest of the UK is failing to keep up with London’s explosive growth October 29, 2013 BRITAIN’s economic recovery is now firmly established. Output in the services sector, the largest part of the economy, has risen above its previous peak, reached before the crash in 2008. There is a widespread myth that the recovery is fuelled by debt-financed personal spending. Yet since the trough of the recession in 2009, the economy [...]
Rising fuel costs: The real trigger behind the 2008 subprime crisis October 29, 2013 FIVE years on, and academics and journalists are still attempting to explain the US subprime loan crisis that, in September 2008, caused the collapse of Lehman Brothers and apparently triggered the global economic crisis. But an important factor in understanding what happened is missing: energy prices. In November to December 1998, a barrel of oil [...]
Letters to the Editor – 30/10 – HS2 flaws, Housing mobility, Best of Twitter October 29, 2013 HS2 flaws [Re: FTSE bosses lose faith in HS2, yesterday] That half of the surveyed FTSE 100 bosses are now against HS2 further underlines why the project has deep faults. The business case for HS2 is flawed, highlighted by the government’s own report, which lowered the expected benefit-cost ratio and revised an assumption that business people [...]
When to invest in passive vehicles October 29, 2013 The rising popularity of tracker funds partly reflects their flexibility, says Annabel Palmer INVESTORS are increasingly turning to passive funds. In the four years to June 2013, the assets held in passive investments have more than doubled in the US. And according to the Investment Management Association, tracker funds’ share of total funds under management [...]
Investment Comment: Mid caps will give you maximum exposure to the UK’s recovery October 29, 2013 WHILE boom times remain far off, UK households are spending and sentiment is improving. The latest good news is that the UK economy grew at its fastest pace in three years in the third quarter, with economic output up 0.8 per cent between July and September. Earlier this month the IMF also lifted its UK [...]
