Qatar Airways CEO Says Slump Concern Won’t Halt Growth ‘Gamble’ - BusinessWeek

Qatar Airways, the Middle Eastern carrier with $35 billion of planes on order, will stick with its expansion plans even amid mounting evidence that global growth is set to slow, Chief Executive Officer Akbar al-Baker said.

“At a time of gloom, global recession and financial crisis, we are adding 15 destinations, we take gambles,” al- Baker said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Dubai.

Qatar Airways, which has orders and options for 178 Airbus SAS and Boeing Co. planes, will add flights from its base in Doha to European cities including Brussels, Budapest and Nice on the French Riviera and Asian locations including Phuket in Thailand and Hanoi, Vietnam, in the coming 12 months, he said.

OPEC lifts demand for its oil for first time in three years - Telegraph

The oil producers, including Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Iran, predicted that demand would edge up by 1m barrels per day – or 1.2pc – next year on China's growing need for energy and an improved world economy.

OPEC said the modest increase "reflected continued caution about the pace of the global economic recovery".

It said most growth in the demand for oil would come from China, India, the Middle East and Latin America, but added that the world's hopes for economic recovery hinged on the US.

UAE's Damas nears debt standstill deal with banks | Reuters

UAE-based jeweller Damas International DAMAS.DI expects to sign an extension with lenders to its standstill agreement on $872 million of debt by the end of next week, its chief executive said on Thursday.

"The standstill is in the final stages of being extended until the end of September," said Anan Fakhreddin. "Everybody is in agreement." The extension would serve as an "interim arrangement to negotiate" debt restructuring, he added.

Damas has been in talks with banks to restructure its debt and has been operating under a standstill agreement. The lenders, some 20 banks, include foreign names like Barclays (BARC.L) and BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA).