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BEIJING — China's three major state telecom operators rolled out 5G wireless technology on Thursday, as the country races to narrow its technology gap with the US amid a bruising trade war.

China Mobile, the country's largest carrier, announced its 5G services were available in 50 cities — including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen — with packages starting from 128 yuan ($18) a month.

Rivals China Telecom and China Unicom are also offering services at comparable prices in major cities, according to notices on their websites.

The ultra-fast mobile Internet service — which is 100 times faster than existing 4G networks — allows consumers to download full-length films within seconds, or use apps with virtual reality.

The technology will also pave the way for driverless cars, further automation in factories, and allow users to remotely control appliances such as coffee makers and ovens via the internet.

China is expected to be a front-runner in the adoption of 5G services with over 170 million 5G subscribers by next year, according to estimates by China Telecom.

South Korea will be in second place with a predicted 75,000 users, followed by the US with 10,000, analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein said in a research note last week. 

"China will promote the deep integration of new generation information technology and the real economy," said Chen Zhaoxiong, vice minister of the ministry of industry and information technology at a technology conference on Thursday.

"This involves accelerating the integration and application of 5G in industries, transportation, energy, agriculture, education and health," Chen said, according to a statement on the ministry's website.

Beijing has been pushing for a quick rollout of the technology, and China's state economic planner said in January that developing a 5G network was one of its "investment priorities" this year.

Despite the success of 5G networks at home, Chinese telecom equipment giants have faced regulatory push back abroad.

The US Federal Communications Commission on Monday said it was considering blocking telecom carriers from buying equipment from Chinese tech companies Huawei and ZTE.

The US is also threatening crippling sanctions on Huawei, which is expected to be a leading player in offering 5G network hardware.

Washington has expressed fears that Huawei's equipment could contain security loopholes that allow China to spy on global communications traffic, and has been lobbying European countries to stay clear of it.

The company has repeatedly denied the US accusations.

RIYADH — The timing of the highly anticipated stock market debut of Saudi energy colossus Aramco will be dictated Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the kingdom’s energy minister said on Wednesday.

Aramco was expected to launch the first part of a two-stage IPO earlier in October, but the process has been delayed, reportedly due to the prince’s dissatisfaction with the valuation of the firm, which had been hoped to reach $2 trillion.

The long-awaited initial public offering will now happen on December 11 on the Riyadh stock market, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Tuesday.

Aramco did not confirm the report and Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman side-stepped the details when he spoke at a major investment conference in Riyadh where the listing has been a topic of discussion.

“I hate this time around to disappoint the media, because I’m not going to talk about OPEC or what we should do, and I’m not going to talk about the IPO,” he said to laughs from the audience of policymakers and top executives. 

“It’s going to come soon... but it will come at the right time with the right approach, and definitely with the right decision. And it will be a Saudi decision first and foremost, specifically Prince Mohammed’s decision,” he added.

Prince Abdulaziz is the half-brother of the crown prince, whose ambitious reform plans for the kingdom’s economy largely rest on the anticipated $100 billion windfall from the Aramco listing.

After an initial listing on the domestic stock exchange, Aramco is believed to be planning to sell the rest of a planned tranche of 5 per cent of the firm on an international bourse. 

“The Saudis’ current objective is to raise $100 billion through the IPO process, even if that means ultimately selling up to 10 per cent of the company to outside investors,” Energy Intelligence said in a report this week.

It cited sources as saying they expect the Saudis to settle on a valuation of $1.6 trillion to $1.7 trillion for the firm.

RIYADH/ DUBAI — Saudi Arabia drew top finance moguls and political leaders to its Davos-style investment summit on Tuesday. 

Organisers say 300 speakers from over 30 countries, including American officials and heads of global banks and sovereign wealth funds, are attending the three-day Future Investment Initiative (FII), nicknamed "Davos in the desert".

With a strong turnout, the event aims at projecting the kingdom as a dynamic investment destination.
"I have been coming to Saudi Arabia for 20 years but what I have been seeing particularly in the past two or three years is [economic] transformation," Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani told the conference, lauding the kingdom's leaders.

"As a businessman and as an investor I'm all in."

"More than 6,000 executives and participants are attending," said Yasir Al Rumayyan, chief of the kingdom's vast Public Investment Fund which organised the conference.

"This is more than double the first FII. The growth has been incredible."

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin leads a high-powered American delegation that includes Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to President Donald Trump.

ARAMCO 

Energy giant Saudi Aramco will make its long-awaited debut on the Riyadh stock market on December 11, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Tuesday.

The broadcaster, citing unnamed sources, said the Saudi exchange will announce on November 3 a timetable for the initial public offering including the release on November 17 of the targeted share price.

"Aramco IPO will begin on December 4," at which point investors can subscribe to the giant offering, the sources said, adding that the shares would then start trading on the Saudi Tadawul exchange on December 11.

The IPO forms the cornerstone of a reform programme conceived by the kingdom's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to wean the Saudi economy off its reliance on oil.

Aramco was expected to launch the first part of a two-stage IPO earlier in October, but decided to push the trading date back to December or January, reportedly to factor in quarterly earnings, and also amid problems with the valuation.

Saudi Arabia was hoping that the company is evaluated at $2 trillion so its proposed sale of 5 per cent of its share would generate the desired $100 billion.

But reports said that the valuation came in lower than that.

Sources also told AFP in mid-September that the mammoth share offering could be delayed after an attack on Saudi oil facilities knocked out half of the output of the world's top crude exporter.

Aramco Chairman Yasir Al Rumayyan, speaking on stage at an opening session of the investment event, commented that "soon we will have more shareholders", but declined to elaborate on the company's plans.

After the listing on the domestic stock exchange, Aramco is believed to be planning to sell the rest of the five per cent on an international bourse. The Al-Arabiya report made no mention of those plans.

AMMAN — Arab Bank Group posted $668.9 million in net income after tax for the first nine months of 2019 compared to $643.2 million in the same period last year, recording a 4 per cent increase, according to a statement of the group. 

Its net income before tax grew by 6 per cent to $912 million with its net operating income reaching $1,040 million and recording a 5 per cent growth, according to the statement.

Sabih Masri, chairman of the Board of Directors said the strong operating performance of the Arab Bank Group attests to its strength, locally and abroad with its wide geographical diversification.

The Arab Bank has recently opened a new branch in Shanghai to strengthen its footprint in the Chinese market within its global network which includes about 600 branches across five continents, he added.

Nemeh Sabbagh, chief executive officer, explained that the underlying performance of the group has helped it to maintain its growth, leading to sound results. 

Strong performance was driven by growth in core banking income with net interest income increasing by 5 per cent. Total loans increased by 3 per cent to reach $26.1, and deposits increased by 4 per cent to reach $34.7 billion, he said, according to the statement.

WASHINGTON — White-hot panic about global trade may have eased a bit in recent weeks, but the economic outlook is no easier to call for the US Federal Reserve as it prepares for a meeting on interest rates this week.

While the United States and China declared another truce and odds fell that Britain will crash out of the European Union, any improvements are as liable to be suddenly dashed as lead to success.

Amid the uncertainty, Fed policymakers appear ready to approve the third interest rate cut in a row as they grow more worried about the future, some daring even to use the dreaded word “recession”.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell this month reiterated his pledge to do what it takes to keep the US economy afloat. 

In a recent speech, his number two, Vice Chairman Richard Clarida, pointed to global growth estimates that “continue to be marked down”.

Both are signals more help is likely on the way. While some economists question whether another move would be necessary or effective, the two-day meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday is held amid increasing signs central bankers are on edge.

In a London speech, James Bullard, the St Louis Fed’s aggressively dovish president, displayed a forecast chart bathed in red, reflecting more downward revisions to the growth projections for the United States, the euro area, Britain and China.

“The key risk is that this slowing may be sharper than anticipated,” he told a conference of central bankers.

Minutes of the Fed’s policy meeting last month said a “clearer picture” is emerging of how the trade war could drive the US into a downturn.

Lost export markets, weak demand and uncertainty could lead to a drawn-out slump in business investment, threatening hiring, consumer spending and the wider economy, according to the meeting’s minutes.

That cautious sentiment is apparent in comments from many American businesses in the Fed’s “beige book” report, and corporate earnings this month have confirmed it: Ford, Boeing, Caterpillar and 3M have all said revenues suffered from falling sales in China.

The result: Futures markets overwhelmingly predict Powell will announce another cut in the benchmark borrowing rate on Wednesday in light of the darkening economic picture.

A ‘Red Bull’ economy 

American consumers have been the star of the show this year, bearing the economy on their shoulders like Atlas while manufacturing, agriculture, business investment and exports have all withered.

But recent data have been a tad grim there too: Annual consumption growth in August was the weakest in eight months, retail sales sank in September along with consumer confidence as word of looming tariffs spread.

So are we headed for a recession?

Not clear, economists say.

“As I’ve said in the past, this is a Red Bull economy. If you’re a big, strong lunk, you can take a lot of caffeine and power through,” Adam Posen, president of Peterson Institute for International Economics, told reporters.

“Even if at some point you’re going to crash, and even if at some point you’re raising your odds of a heart attack, the odds are still small,” he added.

“The US can, with bad fiscal policy and extreme measures, keep going.”

Some voices on the Fed also say more rate cuts are not necessary, and could create more dangers.

The normally dovish Charles Evans of the Chicago Fed said this month that interest rate policy is already “in a good place” as it is.

Both Esther George of Kansas City and Eric Rosengren of Boston have resisted the last two rate cuts, warning that keeping rates low for too long comes at a cost, encouraging corporate America’s dangerous debt binge, and threatening to make an eventual economic downturn even more destructive.

Meanwhile, with unemployment at half-century lows, consumers should be able to go on spending. 

“My own outlook for the economy does not call for a monetary policy response,” George said in a speech — but she noted that her view could change if consumer spending weakens further.

Economist Joel Naroff cautioned that the Fed might not be able to do anything to counteract Trump’s trade war.

“The simple reality is that interest rates are not going to solve the problem that’s causing the risks,” he told AFP.

“If they implement a 25 per cent tariff on Chinese goods, zero per cent [interest rate] is not going to help,” he added.

“Interest rates do not solve political problems”.

WASHINGTON — America's budget deficit rose to nearly $1 trillion in the 2019 fiscal year as government borrowing swelled, the US Treasury said on Friday.

The fourth straight year of broadening budget gaps underscored a new tolerance for yawning fiscal imbalances in the current political era. 

Republican lawmakers' oft-stated fears of weak fiscal discipline under the prior administration have fallen by the wayside and trillion-dollar annual deficits look set to become a new normal.

The persistent increase in government borrowing also runs counter to President Donald Trump's campaign pledges in 2016 to eliminate or at least significantly reduce America's $19 trillion debt load.

The fiscal 2019 deficit jumped by 26 per cent to $984 billion, the highest since 2012, as spending outstripped tax receipts in the wake of the 2017 Republican-led tax cuts, according to the Treasury.

Tariffs imposed in Trump's multi-front trade confrontations also rose to a record $30 billion in the year ending September 30.

"President Trump's economic agenda is working", Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement, calling on lawmakers to cut "wasteful and irresponsible spending".

The increase in the deficit paled in comparison to those recorded during and after the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. 

More than health care 

But unlike that era, the current stretched fiscal reality coincides with a record economic expansion now in its 11th year.

With the economy growing, the government took in more money from workers, importers and companies, who paid $3.5 trillion in taxes, about four per cent more than in 2018.

But spending grew twice as fast, rising 8.2 per cent to $4.5 trillion, driven higher by rising interest on existing public debts, defence spending and outlays for social safety net programmes like Medicare and Social Security.

Borrowing from the public swelled to 79.1 per cent of GDP for the year, up from 77.5 per cent in the year before.

The 2019 fiscal year's deficit put Washington on a path to exceed forecasts from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, which in February said budget gaps should surpass $1 trillion beginning in 2022.

Mnuchin repeatedly argued that the sweeping cuts to corporate and personal income taxes in 2017 would spur economic growth, boosting tax receipts and help the tax cuts pay for themselves.

More recently, however, the White House has emphasised other priorities, with the president saying a stronger military is more important than a balanced budget.

The United States has run budget deficits every year since the late 1990s, an era which immediately preceded the 2001 terrorist attacks and the ensuing wars and recessions.

While interest rates have remained low in the last decade, the costs of US borrowing are rising. Interest on public debts paid by the Treasury in 2019 rose nearly 10 per cent to $572.8 billion.

That handily surpassed the $409.4 billion in federal spending on Medicaid, the health insurance programme covering scores of millions of low-income Americans.

PARIS — French media firms said on Thursday that they would drag Google before the country's competition regulator over its refusal to pay for displaying their content in search results, setting up a legal fight over a new EU copyright law.

The APIG press alliance, which groups dozens of national and regional newspapers, said it would also press the French government to take action against the US Internet giant.

"We are outraged," said Jean-Michel Baylet, APIG president and chief executive of the Depeche du Midi newspaper in southern France.

"Nobody can flout the law, but that's what Google is doing," he said. "The future of the French and European press is at stake."

International news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), which is not a member of the alliance, said it was preparing a separate complaint.

France in July became the first country to ratify an EU copyright law which was passed this year and came into force on Thursday to ensure publishers are compensated when their work is displayed online.

The new rules create so-called neighbouring rights to ensure a form of copyright protection for media firms when their content is used on websites such as search engines or social media platforms.

But Google says articles, pictures and videos will be shown in search results only if media firms consent to let the tech giant use them for free.

If they refuse, only a headline and a bare link to the content will appear, Google said, almost certainly resulting in a loss of visibility and potential ad revenue for the publisher.

 'Act of force' 

"This is an act of force from Google," said Pierre Louette, CEO of Les Echos-Le Parisien media group, accusing the company of trying to "circumvent" the law.

"Google is offering us a choice between amputating our [Internet] traffic, which will prevent readers from finding us or accessing our sites via its search engine, and amputating our rights," he told AFP.

The company rejected the claims in a statement to AFP, saying: "Google helps Internet users find news content from many sources and the results are always based on relevance, not trade agreements."

The company insisted that "publishers have never had so many choices about how their content is displayed on Google", and reiterated that it would "not remove them from the search engine nor change the way it assesses the relevance" of search results.

"The law does not impose a fee for posting links, and European news publishers already derive significant value from the eight billion visits they receive each month from Internet users who do searches on Google," it said.

News publishers have said these links do not help them cope with plummeting revenues as readers migrate online from traditional media outlets.

 'Untenable' 

More than 1,000 journalists, photographers, filmmakers and media CEOs signed an open letter published in newspapers across Europe this week urging governments to ensure that Google and other Internet or social media firms comply with the new EU rule.

Their letter described Google's move as an insult to national and European sovereignty.

"The existing situation, in which Google enjoys most of the advertising revenue generated by the news that it rakes in without any payment, is untenable and has plunged the media into a crisis that is deepening each year," it said.

The presidents of the European Alliance of News Agencies and the European Newspaper Publishers' Association also signed the letter.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said Google must comply with the law, which EU member states are obliged to translate into domestic legislation by June 2021.

"Google is making a big mistake," Digital Affairs Minister Cedric O said Thursday. "It is not up to companies to decide the law and spirit of the law."

Google said it would be available to answer any questions to the competition authority.

SOCHI, Russia — President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia would aim to double trade with Africa over the next five years, at the opening of a summit aimed at reviving Moscow’s ties with the continent.

“We currently export to Africa $25 billion worth of food — which is more than we export in arms, at $15 billion. In the next four to five years, I think we should be able to double this trade, at least,” he told African leaders at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

“In Africa, there are very many potential partners with good prospects.”

Putin said the current level of trade between Moscow and the continent was “not enough”. 

“African countries are attracting ever more attention from Russian businesses,” the president added, highlighting a number of major Russian companies that were already working on the continent. 

Dozens of African leaders are in Sochi for the first Russia-Africa Summit, as Moscow seeks greater influence on a continent where the West and China have a firm foothold.

The two-day event will see more than 3,000 delegates prepare deals and discuss topics from nuclear technology to mineral extraction.

DOHA — Qatar announced on Tuesday a major expansion of its Hamad International Airport, almost doubling the number of visitors it can receive as the Gulf state prepares to host the 2022 World Cup.

Work on the first phase of the expansion is scheduled to start next year and be completed two years later, expanding capacity from 35 million to 53 million passengers, annually.

The second phase is due to be completed after 2022 and will enable the airport, inaugurated in 2014, to handle up to 60 million passengers per year.

The decision to revamp the only international airport in gas-rich Qatar comes despite a fall in the number of tourists visiting the emirate as a result of a two-year boycott mounted by neighbouring countries.

"The expansion... is a vital part of the future success of the Qatar Airways group, and of course of the country's preparations to host the 2022 World Cup and beyond," said the carrier's CEO Akbar Al Baker.

The cost of the expansion project was not revealed.

Qatar has been under a land, air and sea embargo since June 2017 by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as well as Egypt, over its alleged support of radical groups.

Doha has categorically denied the accusations.

London-based Capital Economics said last month that the number of visitors to Qatar had dropped by 20 per cent from pre-boycott levels "reflecting weak arrivals from the rest of the Gulf".

In the first year of the blockade, flights to Doha dived 25 per cent and Qatar Airways flights sank 20 per cent, according to Capital Economics.

Qatar Airways reported last month that it posted $639 million in losses in the fiscal year ending in March, attributing the loss to closure of some major destinations.

To ward off the impact of the boycott, Qatar implemented an economic diversification plan and opened Hamad Port last year to boost trade and facilitate export-import services.

Qatar on Tuesday opened a new temporary passenger terminal at Doha Port, as it works to increase the number of cruise ships making calls in the Gulf state.

Authorities said the terminal will serve until the completion of a port expansion plan due in 2022. 

Projects related to the World Cup, estimated at dozens of billions of dollars, have not been affected by the boycott.

Qatar expects to host some 1.5 million visitors during world football's premier event.

LONDON — The pound hit a fresh five-month peak above $1.30 on Monday on renewed Brexit optimism after Prime Minister Boris Johnson requested another extension to Britain's scheduled departure from the European Union.

At about 08:30 GMT, the pound reached the highest level since May at $1.3012. 

It later stood at $1.2984, unchanged from late in New York on Friday.

The euro was stable at 85.99 pence.

"Markets [are] starting to price in a best case scenario in terms of the deal getting passed this week and then a short extension to pass any necessary legislation," CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson told AFP.

"Whether that optimism turns out to be premature is another matter; only time will tell."

Johnson was on Monday attempting again to push his EU divorce deal through parliament and avoid the political damage of delaying Brexit beyond next week.

Brexit extension 'more likely'  

Lawmakers on Saturday mandated the prime minister to break his promise and send a letter to Brussels asking for more time.

"The main driver [for the pound] is hope of a Brexit extension being more likely, which could result in a better exit deal potentially to be negotiated than is currently on offer," said Accendo Markets trader Samuel Springett.

The pound had already struck five-month highs last week on optimism over Johnson's Brexit agreement with Brussels.

The option of extending the three-and-a-half year crisis past the October 31 Brexit deadline is now in the hands of the 27 remaining EU member states.

Since spiking above $1.30 in the morning London session, sterling has since slid back underneath.

Yet, the currency is attracting demand as traders buy on the dips, according to Maurice Pomery, who is head of trading firm Strategic Alpha.

"Markets are still trying to get to grips with what is going to happen with Brexit," he said.

"The pound topped out after taking out $1.30 today but UK bonds stalled at Thursday's lows," Pomery told AFP.

"Dealers seem to be watching bonds closely as we have seen decent moves down — with yields higher — across the board.”

"The market seems to believe a no-deal is now off the table so we may yet see further gains in the pound."

Elsewhere, Asian equity markets mostly rose but there was little major movement in reaction to China's top trade negotiator Liu He saying at the weekend that Beijing and Washington had made "substantial progress" towards wrapping up a partial trade deal announced earlier this month.

The deal offered China a temporary reprieve from tariffs planned for mid-October, while Beijing said it would hike purchases of US agricultural goods.

But it did not roll back any of the duties already imposed on hundreds of billions of dollars in exports to the US, nor address another round of levies due in December.