Insights

Tax Planning
European Commission drops Guernsey from EU tax blacklist

After a meeting held in Brussels between the European Union officials, the European Commission issued a blacklist naming 30 non-cooperative jurisdictions. The commission has removed Guernsey from the blacklist and has endorsed Guernsey as a ‘cooperative jurisdiction’. Jonathan Le Tocq, Guernsey’s chief minister welcomed the news and said; “This recognizes not only Guernsey’s adherence to…

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Market Update
Review for first week of August

August started with emerging market equities continuing to struggle in dollar terms. While the Japanese and European equities supported the global equity markets; small caps and growth were outperformed by defensive large cap sectors. The oil rig count (rough proxy for activity in the industry) rose for the third time in a month. There was…

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Market Update
The end of July

The recovery in foreign trade and an increase in consumer spending in the second quarter (April – June) has helped the economy of United States to grow at an annualized rate of 2.3%. The interest rates were left between 0 – 0.25% by the Federal Reserve. According to the Federal Open Market Committee the target…

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Investment
Current markets, opportunities and threats

Often it is said that traders go away in May and return in September and the summer lull has become a well-used phrase around the financial markets for many years. However, this year has been a little different with plenty of activity during the summer period. There have been huge losses in the Chinese markets,…

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Financial Planning
UAE employees urged to spend their early Eid wages wisely (The National)

Public sector workers who will be getting their wages early have been urged by financial experts to spend responsibly and budget carefully. So far government workers in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain and Ajman, as well as members of the Armed Forces and federal government employees will receive early payment of…

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Investment
Burst of the bond bubble could leave the biggest mess of all (The National)

The two big investment bubbles that most people worry about are stock market and property bubbles. But there is one bubble that has been growing for years, and few people aside from investment specialists seem to worry about it at all. It is known as the bond bubble, and if it bursts the fallout could…

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