[:en]JEDDAH: Local bottled water consumption during the summer, Umrah and Haj seasons this year will increase by 10 percent. “This translates into an annual growth rate of between 4 percent and 5 percent,” Rashed Bin-Zouma, a water industry expert, was quoted as saying in a local publication. According to Bin-Zouma, ... Read More

[:en]Hotels in the Middle East/Africa region reported mixed results in the three key performance metrics when reported in U.S. dollar constant currency, according to June 2015 data compiled by STR Global. Compared to June 2014, the Middle East/Africa region reported an 8.2% decrease in occupancy to 56.1%, ... Read More

[:en]The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) may witness the advent of value-added tax (VAT) in the next two to three years with its impact likely on the end-consumers but the levy may not be a "deterrent" for businesses, according to Ernst and Young (EY), a multinational professional services firm. Highlighting that the ... Read More

[:en]In one hand is a pair of large white underpants, in the other a pair of leopard-print skimpies. The senior executive of a new startup bank is attempting to demonstrate the difference between the incumbent high street banks (the boring Y-fronts) and the “speed not comfort” approach of Atom, a ... Read More

[:en]Goodbye, Chicago boys. Hello, M.I.T. gang. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, the term “Chicago boys” was originally used to refer to Latin American economists, trained at the University of Chicago, who took radical free-market ideology back to their home ... Read More