Strong dollar and low inflation make UAE expats a happier lot

 

The global economy may not be giving out the brightest of signals (don’t even look towards Europe), but expatriates in the UAE are keeping their fingers crossed as a stronger US dollar – to which the UAE dirham has a fixed peg – and a low inflation rate, thanks to declining rents, are heralding a feel-good factor they’d all but forgotten in the past few years. The US dollar has gained significant momentum in the past few months, and has led to the UAE dirham appreciate in tandem against currencies in which expats remit money home, leading to welcome monthly savings by expats. At Rs13.11 at 9.30am this morning, the Indian rupee, for instance, is trading at a two-year low against the dirham (the INR last traded at the same level against the UAE dirham in late September 2009). The Pakistani Rupee (PKR), on the other hand, is at an all-time low against the dirham, with Dh1 fetching as many as PKR23.9 as of Tuesday. The British pound, too, has lost ground against the US dollar – in effect, against the UAE dirham – and is currently trading at AED5.78 for £1, a level not seen since mid-January this year. Similarly, the Philippines Peso is trading at PHP11.90 vs Dh1, its lowest level since mid-March this year. Rental relief While the strong US dollar implies that expats with fixed monthly commitments back home – be it mortgage payments or family sustenance allowances – are making incremental savings on their remittances, what is really adding to their bank balance is perhaps the lower annual rental payments, which have declined substantially over the past two years. From the crazy days of early 2008, rents in the UAE – though still high compared to other property markets at a similar stage of development – have declined by 50 to 60 per cent in certain cases. With a vast majority of UAE expats living in rented accommodation, this has led to a substantial boost to their finances while at the same time pushing down debt levels in the country. Banking on growth According to UAE Central Bank statistics, bank deposits rose to an all-time record of Dh1.126 trillion in the first half of 2011, compared with Dh985.4b in the first half of 2010 – a growth of 17 per cent year-on-year. At the same time, overall bank lending (including loans to businesses) are witnessing a slowdown too, with loans and advances by banks up just 3 per cent in the same 12-month period. On the other hand, personal loans availed of by residents inched up by less than 1 per cent during the same period, from Dh245.6b in June 2010 to Dh248b in June 2011 – indicating that we are saving more and borrowing less now. Spending vs saving While this may bode well for the residents in the short-term, Keynesian economics suggests excessive saving, i.e. saving beyond planned investment, is a serious problem, encouraging recession or even depression. According to experts, excessive saving results if investment falls, perhaps due to falling consumer confidence and/or demand, over-investment in earlier years, or pessimistic business expectations, and if saving does not immediately fall in step, the economy declines, or stops growing. Saving in effect means not spending all of one’s income. Thus, it means insufficient demand for business output, unless it is balanced by other sources of demand, such as fixed investment – a recurring savings account or a fixed deposit in a bank, for instance. While such an account is ‘savings’ for one person, it gives the bank the freedom to lend the same money to another individual or a company for business purposes, plugging liquidity back into the general economy, which boosts growth. But in case of a lack of borrowing demand – as seems to be the case now – excessive saving corresponds to an unwanted accumulation of inventories, or what classical economists called a general glut. This glut in inventory eventually leads businesses to decrease production and then employment levels, leading to a fall in household income levels, and the beginning of a new recessionary cycle. A number of residents who saw their friends or friends of friends lose jobs or generally get into financial trouble in the recent past with the economic slowdown went into auto-savings mode – fearing the worst, they downsized their expenses and started saving for the rainy day. They became prudent in their expenditure. But at some point in their savings spree, prudent became paranoid – weekly grocery shopping bills began being overanalysed (did we really need the room freshener?); in some cases, non-working spouses returned to their home countries along with the kids to avail of complimentary (or at least less expensive) schooling there, and working individuals shifted to smaller accommodations, further cutting down on rents. But with things improving (incrementally and relatively), it may be time to stop being ‘paranoid’ and start being ‘prudent’ about your finances again. We are certainly not suggesting that you start splurging now in a bid to boost the overall economy – far from it – but do relax those purse-strings a little bit to once again enjoy some of the things that money can buy.

Handling of Saudi prince's Spain court case challenged

 

Lawyers for a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia say the case has not been properly handled by Spain's criminal justice system. The woman, known only as "Soraya", says she was assaulted on a yacht moored off the island of Ibiza in 2008. A spokeswoman for the prince denied the allegation and said he had not been to Ibiza for more than a decade. The case was shelved by an island court but has now been reopened. This followed a successful appeal by Soraya's lawyers. The judge is preparing a second official request to the Saudi authorities for assistance in formally questioning the prince. The nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is a multi-billionaire with major investments in both Citigroup and NewsCorp. 'Something in my drink' "In our opinion, the Court of Instruction No 3 in Ibiza and the police did not follow full procedure in cases of alleged sexual abuse," the lawyers from Madrid-based firm Turiel and Beloqui told the BBC. "There are things that should have been investigated that were not - like questioning staff on the yacht and the guests, an analysis of the victim's clothes and so on," the lawyers wrote, describing the fact these steps were not taken as "very unusual". The claim that the case was not being pursued with proper rigour was dismissed by the Ibiza court in 2010, saying that the identity of the accused in no way affected its decision to drop the case that year. The court ruling cites insufficient evidence to proceed. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote My daughter was in a terrible state, [...] scared to death, crying, awful” Mother of 'Soraya' Soraya, a Spanish-German model, was 20 at the time of the alleged attack on 13 August 2008 on board the 117-metre luxury yacht Turama. She told police she had begun to feel nauseous in the VIP zone of a local night club, where she believes something was slipped into her drink. She had been taken there by a man claiming to be a chauffeur for "an Arab prince" who was visiting the island. According to court documents seen by the BBC, Soraya sent the chauffeur an SMS text message at 05:12, saying: "I haven't drunk much but I think there was something in my drink." The model says she came round some hours later on board the Turama to find a man on top of her. She later identified the man as Prince Alwaleed bin Talal using images taken from YouTube. Forensic reports from a medical examination the following day revealed traces of a sedative and semen, but no physical injuries. A woman identifying herself as the mother of Soraya told the BBC her daughter had called on the morning of the alleged attack asking her to come and collect her from the island. "My daughter was in a terrible state, [...] scared to death, crying, awful," the woman said, responding to questions sent by email. "The Spanish justice system has treated this case very badly. In my view they did not want to get too involved because of who the accused was." A 2010 prosecutor's report says three men who were questioned by police during the investigation were unable to corroborate the model's version of events "in any way". The Saudi foreign ministry rejected an initial request from the Ibizan court to investigate, citing "an inability to identify the accused and a lack of solid evidence". This week, a spokeswoman for Prince Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding Company said the prince had never been informed of the 2008 court case, or that it was eventually shelved. In a statement, she also said the billionaire's travel records confirm he was with dozens of friends and family at the time of the alleged attack, nowhere near Ibiza. "There have been many examples of people impersonating Prince Alwaleed over the internet and elsewhere for their own purposes," Heba Fatani said in a statement. She called the allegations against him "salacious" and "completely and utterly false". The Audencia Provincial court in Mallorca - which has jurisdiction over Ibiza - has ordered the case to be reopened in order to ensure the prince can be questioned in accordance with Spanish law. Soraya's lawyers have urged him to provide a DNA sample to rule himself out of the inquiry.

Spain raises taxes on the rich

 

Spain today became the latest European country to hike taxes on the wealthy, with a new asset-based tax targeting the country's richest people. Spain's socialist government hopes that the new wealth tax will raise up to €1bn in a country where growth is grinding to a halt and this year's 6% deficit target looks increasingly tough to meet. The move represents a U-turn for prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who abolished a similar wealth tax in 2008 — just before the country plunged towards recession. "The economic crisis makes it necessary to bring this tax back, applying principles of fairness so that those with bigger assets can be taxed and so those who have greater wealth can contribute more to getting the country out of the crisis," a finance ministry statement said. Spaniards with €700,000 of assets in real estate – excluding their main home – as well as in stocks and bank deposit will have to pay the new tax. "It excludes the middle classes, who were the ones who had been largely affected by it when it was eliminated in 2008," the statement said. "We estimate the number of people who will contribute at around 160,000, with annual payments of about €1.08bn if it is applied evenly across Spain," it added. The wealth tax will go to Spain's cash-strapped regional governments, though some of them are opposed to it. Only one of the eleven regions currently governed by the right-wing opposition People's Party (PP) has so far indicated that it will apply the tax. It remained unclear how many others, including the wealthy Madrid region, would join the PP-administered region of Extremadura. But with fierce austerity measures in place, PP regional governments will come under intense pressure to use the tax. "In moments of hardship it is fair that those who have more should give more, just as some of the wealthiest people in Germany and France have offered to do, especially as they are less affected by measures that have been applied to pensions, salaries, lay-offs and income tax or VAT hikes," said José María Mollinedo, head of the tax inspectors' union. Spain's wealthy largely avoid income tax, with only some 7,000 people declaring annual taxable income above €600,000. Emilio Botín, head of the Santander banking group and Spain's tenth wealthiest individual, said that he disagreed with the move. "I think it's bad," he told journalists

THE seventh edition of the Marbella Classic poker series was won last weekend by a visitor from the beautiful Emerald Isle, Mr Thomas O’Shea.

 

THE seventh edition of the Marbella Classic poker series was won last weekend by a visitor from the beautiful Emerald Isle, Mr Thomas O’Shea. A highly delighted Thomas picked up a very handy €11,500 for his troubles after beating some of the local poker pros into submission, including last year’s series winner Julian Galan, Miguel Cortijo, Marco Palazon and the very charismatic Pedro ‘El grande’, Spain’s answer to super Mario. Congratulations must also go out to former Marbella Mob Poker founder member Sir Nigel Goldman. In his first European Poker Tour event two weeks ago in Barcelona, he managed to secure his expenses and a little bit more by getting a very respectable 66th place from a record starting field of 817. A nice cheque from the casino for €12k and a jolly decent stay in the fabulous Arts Hotel were just what the doctor ordered. Well done Sir N. Closer to home, the local games are just throwing up amazing hand over amazing hand. Not quite as dramatic as the back to back straight flushes a couple of weeks ago, but none the less very remarkable. How would you feel if you flopped quad tens only to have the monster overturned by a royal flush? Pretty sick eh, actually this is the second time in less than a week that poor Gary has come up against the 650,000 to 1 shot as last week his full house got done by the Royal flush of clubs. Last night his quads got beaten by a royal flush in, guess what? Clubs again!! To specifically hit a royal flush in clubs is a 2,598,960 to 1 chance. He had better buy his lottery ticket now as he’s got more chance of hitting the jackpot than what’s happened to him.

Des O'Connor is in Marbella topping up his tan.

Des O'Connor is in Marbella topping up his tan. He’s only been here two days, but already he’s an improbable shade of mahogany. 

‘Look at this,’ he says, flashing a generous glimpse of sun-burnished chest.

‘I only have to look at a travel brochure and I go brown. My neighbours see me and say: “Here he comes, the Singing Tan”.’ 

'My wife has mentioned having another baby. But it would be a bit selfish of me at my age, even though I'm in reasonably good nick,' said Des O'Connor

Here we have the measure of Des, 79, one of the nation’s best-loved entertainers: his capacity for self-mockery is matched by an irrepressible facility for fun. 

Inducing laughter in others is a compulsion. And in a world where vulgarity and foul-mouthed parody pass as comedy, Des’s brand of humour is remorselessly clean.

He’s never said a word worse than ‘piddle’ during an act. He doesn’t go in for gratuitous insults. Once he made an unkind joke against Christine Hamilton, wife of the ex-Tory MP Neil, and felt so bad about it after he resolved never to be hurtful towards anyone again. 

Yet when his old friend Eric Morecambe routinely disparaged him on the Morecambe And Wise Show, he joined in the laughter. Each week, there would be a fresh assault on his voice.

APPLE MEGASTORE IN MARBELLA

Tourists come to know Marbella as one of the most sought after holiday destinations not only in Spain but throughout the European continent; now Apple choose the charming mediterranean town with the highest Millionaires concentration to host its most ambitious project in the Iberian Peninsula.

A series of rumors speak of the future opening of an Apple store in Marbella, something which has been discussed for months, but now with an added extra, since it would be the largest Apple store in Spain.

Recently, Apple opened two of its famous stores in Madrid and Barcelona and everything indicates that the next one will be located on the Costa del Sol, specifically in the shopping center La Cañada in Marbella.

The Apple Store in Marbella would have an area of 1700 square meters, which would make it the largest in the Spanish territory. Its inauguration is expected in November. Thus, Marbella will host the third Apple store in Spain. 

 

 

Duchess 'is no trendsetter' say NY fashionistas

 

While her closely-watched outfit choices may send clothes flying off the shelves in Britain, fashionistas in the Big Apple say no one would look at her twice on the streets of Manhattan. Related articles Duchess of Cambridge: Stylish Kate combines sartorial flair with patriotic diplomacy Duchess of Cambridge expected to fuel sales of £5 face cream Kate Middleton turns to the high street for her engagement photograph outfits One style guru at New York fashion week suggested that it was only because of her fame as a royal that people are interested in what she wears. Elle fashion news director Anne Slowey told the Daily Mail: "Is she a style icon of the likes of a Kate Moss? Absolutely not. Is she in the public eye? Are people going to become obsessed with everything she wears regardless of what it is? Yes." Gregg Andrews, a fashion director at leading US department store chain Nordstrom, said: "She is stylish but she's not setting trends, she's following trends. "If you take Kate out of the Royal Family, put her on a street in New York, you wouldn't look at her twice. She's a beautiful woman, but she blends into a crowd." On a positive note, however, fashion writer Jill Martin predicted that the Duchess's wedding dress, by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, would be a style followed by many brides next spring. The 29-year-old royal has won plaudits in the UK for mixing high street and designer looks and her public appearances in various outfits have seen sales rocket.

For Long Sweet Life

 

Whether for its unique taste, it versatility when used for cooking or its antioxidant phenolic compounds, maple syrup is a local product that is greatly appreciated and that never ceases to amaze. Maple syrup has already begun its interesting breakthrough with the international scientific community, and consumers everywhere, especially in Japan, are widely interested in the product. Indeed, the Japanese, always on the lookout for natural foods that play a role in disease prevention, love 100% pure maple syrup from Canada and are particularly interested in its various benefits. Dr. Keiko Abe of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences led a study that showed that maple syrup could promote a healthier liver. The study established that healthy laboratory rats fed a diet in which some of the carbohydrate was replaced with 100% pure maple syrup from Canada yielded significantly better results in liver function tests than the control groups fed a diet with a syrup mix1 containing a similar sugar content as maple syrup but without the beneficial compounds of maple syrup. The results will be published in the November, 2011 issue of “Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry.” Although most healthy individuals take liver function for granted, liver health is of great importance because of the hundreds of vital functions it performs that are essential to human life, which include storing energy (glycogen) and regulating blood glucose, the production of certain amino acids (building blocks of protein) and filtering harmful substances from the blood. According to the Canadian Liver Foundation, there are over 100 liver diseases affecting approximately one out of ten Canadians, including men, women and children. These health diseases show up most often in middle aged people who are overweight, have abnormal blood lipids and diabetes or insulin resistance—conditions when grouped together, are known as metabolic syndrome. “It is important to understand the factors leading to impaired liver function– our lifestyle choices including poor diet, stress and lack of exercise, as well as exposure to environmental pollutants,” says Dr. Melissa Palmer, clinical professor and medical director of hepatology at New York University Plainview. “The preliminary results of this research are encouraging and emphasize the importance of choosing a healthy diet to help counteract the lifestyle and environmental factors that may impact liver function, even our choice of a sweetener. In addition to Dr. Abe’s recent findings, published research suggests that 100% pure maple syrup may prove to be a better choice of sweetener because it was found to be rich in polyphenolic antioxidants and contains vitamins and minerals,” notes Palmer . The animals were evaluated using the latest analytical methods including gene expression profiling called nutrigenomics. In the study, rats were fed diets consisting of 20% pure maple syrup, or 20% syrup mixture with similar sugar content as maple syrup but without the beneficial compounds of maple syrup. After 11 days, the rats on the maple syrup diet showed significantly decreased levels of liver enzymes AST, ALT and LDH in the blood, standard biomarkers for evaluating liver function. The gene expression profiling observations suggest a mechanism whereby the maple syrup diet caused genes involved in the production of harmful ammonia in the liver to down-regulate, that is, to be less active. “This research contributes to our growing understanding of the incredible health potential of maple syrup,” remarked Serge Beaulieu, President of the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers. “We learned previously that maple syrup contains antioxidant compounds that may actually help regulate glucose metabolism and increase insulin release, possibly aiding in the management of type 2 diabetes. And now, Dr. Abe is exploring the relationship between maple syrup consumption and liver health. Her current findings give us even more reason to enjoy our maple syrup.”

Millions of Hotmail users cut off by Microsoft 'cloud' failure

 

As well as Hotmail, the outage affected Office 365 and the Skydrive online storage service. Microsoft said the cause appeared to be related to the Domain Name System, the computer network that ensures that web addresses are connected to websites. “Preliminary root cause suggests a DNS issue,” the firm said on its office 365 Twitter feed. The problems lasted for at least two-and-a-half hours, beginning at around 4AM British Summer Time. On a company blog, Microsoft said it had fixed the problem at 5.45AM, but the repairs took some time to “propagate” through the DNS network.  "We are working on propagating the DNS configuration changes and so it will take some time to restore service to everyone. Again we appreciate your patience," the firm said. For Office 365, Microsoft’s subscription-only competitor to Google Apps, which went live earlier this year, it was the second major technical failure in less than a month. Such incidents are likely to give pause to organisations considering migration to online “cloud” services, whereby software is delivered from vast data centres, over the internet.

Corruption scandal plunges Kuwait into deep crisis

 

The wealthy Gulf state of Kuwait appeared headed Thursday for a major political crisis over allegations of corruption involving several members of Parliament and former ministers. Media reported that a number of banks planned to refer as many as 15 MPs and possibly former ministers to the public prosecution to investigate "suspicious" huge cash deposits into their accounts. Citing informed sources, Al-Rai daily said local banks are likely to refer between 15-20 MPs in the 50-member parliament to public prosecution to probe money-laundering suspicions. It said a number of former ministers could be involved in the scam. State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Ali al-Rashed denied late Wednesday reports that incumbent ministers were involved in the alleged scandal. The government has instructed the central bank and the finance ministry to "take all necessary legal measures" to deal with the allegations. The scandal, as opposition MPs describe it, was exposed by Al-Qabas newspaper in an unsourced report two weeks ago that cash funds totaling 25 million dinars ($92 million/65.4 million euros) had been deposited into the accounts of two MPs. The report claimed the deposits were linked to domestic political events including grillings, indicating that the deposits were used to buy the support of the lawmakers in crucial voting in parliament. Independent Shiite MP Hassan Jowhar expected the issue to develop into a major political crisis that will lead to dissolving parliament and calling for snap polls, the fourth since May 2006. Youth activists campaigning to oust Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, a senior member of the ruling family, plan to stage a new rally on September 16 and the corruption charges could energize them. Kuwaiti opposition MPs demanded recalling parliament from summer recess for an emergency session on September 22 to review government measures on the allegations and debate and pass a number of anti-corruption laws.