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LISBON — One of the world's biggest technology get-togethers kicks off in the Portuguese capital on Tuesday, with organisers saying a key aim is to ask tough questions about cryptocurrencies.

Around 100,000 people are expected to gather in Lisbon for the four-day Web Summit and related events, the first full-scale edition since 2019 following the disruption of the pandemic.

The conference attempts to bring together start-ups, investors, business leaders and agenda-broadening speakers — linguist Noam Chomsky and heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk are among this year's lineup.

Several of the prime slots, though, are taken by cryptocurrency specialists led by Changpeng Zhao, boss of crypto exchange Binance.

And plenty of companies present — from start-ups to billion-dollar behemoths Yuga Labs and OpenSea — are promoting the technology that fans claim will be the future of the web, gaming and ultimately the entire financial system.

But crypto has so far been derided as a tool to generate investment bubbles, hide illicit wealth and enable scams.

Conference organiser Paddy Cosgrave told AFP there were "a lot of questions to be answered" about crypto, describing it as "largely smoke and mirrors".

"We've done our best to persuade many of the leading lights in the space to come and some of them will get a bit of a kicking on stage, we'll see how that goes," he added.

Crypto sceptics including actor Ben McKenzie (Gotham, The O.C.) have also been given slots.

Organisers said the event's 70,000 tickets had sold out, with Cosgrave reckoning some 30,000 more people would be in Lisbon for side events.

Whistleblower focus 

Zhao's company is the dominant player in the crypto sector, but it has been repeatedly accused of trying to dodge regulatory scrutiny — claims the company has denied.

And it became embroiled in one of the biggest stories of the week, with a $500 million investment to back Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter.

But the wider crypto sector is struggling with plunging values and flatlining interest from the public.

And the tech industry as a whole is also struggling with supply chain problems, trade disputes between the US and China, and economic volatility that has sent investors fleeing.

Cosgrave, though, played down any suggestion that conferences like his had a role in helping to stimulate investment or turn around the fortunes of the sector.

"It's not really about the establishment or the dominant companies of today," he said.

"It's a gathering of companies that in the future may play some significant role."

As usual, though, the Web Summit will host plenty of figures from the dominant companies — Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta will all be there.

But on a lower level than last year, when the conference played host to Facebook's Nick Clegg and to whistleblower Frances Haugen, who accused their company of stoking hatred in return for clicks.

Cosgrave highlighted the event's history of giving a platform to whistleblowers — this year Mark MacGann, who revealed details of Uber's aggressive lobbying, will be giving a talk.

The organisers say more than 1,000 speakers will take part, giving talks on subjects from cyber security to artificial intelligence.

NEW YORK — Tech shares were back on their front foot on Friday following solid Apple results, boosting the Nasdaq nearly three per cent and adding to weekly gains.

Apple, the biggest company in terms of market value, soared nearly 8 per cent after reporting higher profits despite lower-than-expected iPhone sales. 

Apple's surge helped offset a comparable drop in Amazon shares on a disappointing holiday-quarter forecast and added to buying momentum on Wall Street following a mixed day in global bourses and a drop in oil prices.

"The stock market showed impressive resilience today," observed Briefing.com after the Dow's sixth straight positive session.

The gains by Apple helped prompt an advance by large tech companies like Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet that were punished earlier in the week in a pullback that investors feared could mark a major negative turning point for tech giants.

Art Hogan, analyst at B. Riley Financial, said tech shares benefited Friday from an "oversold rebound", adding that semiconductor shares were lifted by Facebook parent Meta's plan to boost investment in the metaverse.

Stocks have also been boosted in recent sessions by hopes the Federal Reserve will soon moderate its policies to counter inflation.

Markets largely shrugged off a mixed US economic data that showed inflation lingering but also a jump in household spending. 

In Europe, Germany's economy unexpectedly grew in the third quarter, but slowing growth in France and Spain added to fears that high inflation and an energy crisis will tip the region into recession.

"Today's positive growth data is a welcome surprise. However, it does not mean that the German economy will be able to prevent a recession," said ING economist Carsten Brzeski.

Elsewhere, the yen was down against the dollar after Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the country would spend $260 billion on a stimulus package to cushion the weak economy.

The yen has plunged to 32-year lows versus the dollar in recent weeks as Japan's central bank refuses to hike interest rates despite sky-high inflation, fuelled by soaring energy prices.

"The Japanese yen is once again the worst performer today after the Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy unchanged," said market analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets.

CAIRO — Egypt has clinched a $3 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditioned on a currency depreciation and state subsidy cuts, the government said on Thursday.

The Egyptian pound shed 17 per cent of its value against the dollar after the staff agreement was announced.

Egypt has been battered by inflation and is among the world's top five countries most at risk of defaulting on its foreign debt, according to the international credit rating agency Moody's.

The IMF deal is conditioned on reforms that include further cuts to subsidies, bringing yet more pain for struggling households in the Arab world's most populous nation.

In August, global investment firm Goldman Sachs estimated that Egypt would need about $15 billion in funding to be able to repay its foreign debt, currently estimated at about $150 billion.

In addition to the latest $3 billion loan, Egypt has also unlocked another $1 billion from the IMF from a facility dedicated to developing countries, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Thursday.

The loan programme is scheduled to run for four years and is due to be sent to the IMF board of directors for approval in December, Madbouly said.

He added that Egypt had also received an additional $5 billion from "regional and international organisations", without specifying which.

The IMF meanwhile said in a statement that its staff and "the Egyptian authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on comprehensive economic policies and reforms to be supported by a 46-month Extended Fund Facility Arrangement of $3 billion".

Plunging currency 

Egypt has been dependent on bailouts both from the IMF and from Gulf allies, particularly since the 2013 ouster of Islamist late president Mohammed Morsi.

The Egyptian tourism sector — already battered by extremist attacks and the coronavirus pandemic — and the major wheat importer's food industry have lately been hit hard by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

With the latest depreciation, Egypt's local currency has shed a total of 47 per cent of its value since the start of the year, going down to 23 pounds against the greenback as markets closed Thursday, down from 15.6 pounds in a matter of months.

The pound's continued free-fall against the dollar has caused many importers to stop bringing in goods.

The pound previously saw a dramatic devaluation in 2016 when it shed need nearly half its value overnight.

Inflation has also surged recently, reaching 15.3 per cent in September, driven by the skyrocketing food prices.

Non-oil private sector activity has continued to contract since 2017, while experts fear an impending real estate bubble as the military continues to launch massive-scale development projects that often lack financial transparency.

LONDON — The euro on Wednesday jumped back above parity with the dollar, the US currency sliding against its main rivals on concerns over the world's biggest economy and the prospect of slower interest rate hikes.

The euro bounced back above one dollar for the first time since mid-September, helped also by expectations of a big interest-rate hike from the European Central Bank on Thursday.

There were large gains against the dollar also for the British pound and yen, helping them recover some ground following the recent sharp losses.

The dollar retreated following "a string of negative [US] economic data released since the beginning of the week", noted ActivTrades senior analyst Ricardo Evangelista.

Poorly received data, including slower house price growth and weaker consumer confidence, showed that big rate hikes from the Federal Reserve (Fed) are "starting to open some cracks in the American economy", he said.

"The Federal Reserve has been hiking rates aggressively in an attempt to bring inflation under control and the country's economy is starting to suffer as a result," Evangelista added.

Risk investments rebound 

A string of poor economic news has been welcomed by investors as it opens up the possibility that the Fed can slow down or end its interest rate hikes sooner. The recent news has seen risk investments like equities rebound in recent weeks.

The Bank of Canada on Wednesday increased its main rate by a smaller than expected 0.5 percentage points.

Market analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets said the move "suggests that central banks are starting to wake up to the possibility that too aggressive rate rises could do more harm than good".

He added: "It's also got markets asking the question, could the Fed follow suit next week after another poor set of housing numbers from the US?"

Wall Street, which had opened lower on poor results from tech giants, was mostly higher in late morning trading.

In Europe, London, Frankfurt and Paris stocks all ended the day higher.

Sterling on Wednesday jumped more than 1 per cent against the dollar, winning a boost also from markets welcoming the appointment of Rishi Sunak as prime minister.

The move was seen as offering stability to the UK economy after weeks of upheaval fuelled by predecessor Liz Truss's tax-cutting budget.

"The pound pushed back above the 1.1600 area against the US dollar today and risen against the euro despite the prospect that next week's budget statement has been delayed until 17th November in order to allow time" for updated fiscal forecasts, said Hewson.

NEW YORK — General Motors (GM) confirmed its full-year financial forecast Tuesday, lifting shares as it reported strong consumer demand in spite of a "challenging" environment with grinding inflation.

The big US automaker scored a 37 per cent jump in third-quarter profits to $3.3 billion, bolstered by strong vehicle pricing in a market with historically low auto inventories. 

Revenues jumped 56 per cent to $41.9 billion, a quarterly record.

GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson acknowledged rising worries about the drag from inflation on economic growth, but said the company was still seeing robust demand for its products.

"We haven't seen any direct impact on our products. Pricing remains strong, demand remains strong for our product," Jacobson said on a conference call with reporters.

"I think we can't ignore what others are saying out there and what others are seeing out there," he said. "So we're going to continue to be agile, with both our cost investments as well as our production."

"But we continue to see that strong demand so the best we can do is be prepared for it." 

GM benefitted from increased auto deliveries worldwide, including in North America where it shipped around 75 per cent of the partially-built autos from the prior quarter that had been suspended due to shortages of key materials.

Like other automakers, GM's operations have been constrained by limits on components, especially semiconductors.

The Detroit-based company pointed to "improvements" in the supply chain and semiconductor availability, but said it still faced "commodity and logistic challenges", according to its earnings presentation.

"I wouldn't say we're completely out of it yet," GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra said of the semiconductor issue. "It's more volatile than I would expect at this point. But we're continuing to work through the different challenges and quarter by quarter, we're seeing it improve."

In an interview with CNBC, Barra said GM was better positioned for a potential recession than in the past because inventories — while elevated compared with a few months ago — remain lower than historical averages.

"We have the ability right now because inventories are so low to really monitor the situation," Barra said, adding that "we're much better prepared to manage if we do move into a recession or have challenges from a demand-side perspective".

The results translated into higher-than-expected profits per share, but revenues slightly lagged analyst expectations.

Shares rose 3.1 per cent to $37.04 in pre-market trading.

AMMAN — Cryptocurrency’s use as a digital payment method is accelerating globally, and certainly, the trend is well on its way to the Middle East after the proper regulations are implemented, said Leila Serhan, senior vice president and group country manager for Visa in North Africa, the Levant and Pakistan (NALP).

The number of people using crypto-linked credit cards is subsequently trending, with Visa reporting around $3.5 billion in crypto transactions in 2021, Serhan added.

"This is not just people buying cryptocurrency, but also people using cryptocurrency to enable digital commerce," she told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

"Crypto is a trend that we cannot ignore. There are around 400 million people who have purchased crypto around the world, and at Visa, we look at ourselves as a network of networks, and crypto networks are definitely one of the networks where we want to facilitate the exchange of money," Serhan said, adding that crypto remains "a strong investment vehicle" that continues to enjoy popularity amongst investors. 

As such, Visa has partnered with over 75 crypto-enabling exchanges.

"What we have done with many exchanges is that we have allowed users to issue Visa cards that hold cryptocurrency, and allow them to go through the 80 million merchants around the world that accept Visa and use their crypto card to buy any product. This is what we are focusing on in this regard currently, and of course, regulations need to allow it,” she said, adding that if a country’s regulations allow for it, the company will facilitate the transactional use of cryptocurrency. 

Visa cards work in approximately 200 countries, and 3.9 billion visa cards have been issued across the world.

During its recent earnings call, Visa reported that customers have conducted $2.5 billion in payments with crypto-linked cards in the first fiscal quarter of 2022. This figured comprises 70 per cent of the company’s crypto volume for all of fiscal year (FY) 2021, according to a report by CNBC, citing Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu.

“To us, this signals that consumers see utility in having a Visa card linked to an account on a crypto platform. There’s value in being able to access that liquidity to fund purchases and manage expenses, and to do so instantly and seamlessly,” Prabhu, quoted by CNBC, said.

Recently, the Middle East has witnessed a notable uptick in crypto investment and transactions.

Illustrating the surge in crypto, Serhan referred to recent Dubai regulations of the digital medium. The Dubai Law No. 4 of 2022 regulating Virtual Assets in the emirate (VA Law) was issued in March of this year. The VA Law established the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), which was tasked with creating a legal framework for the virtual assets sector.

"We have seen many crypto exchanges setting up shop in Dubai, such as crypto.com, Binance and others," Serhan added.

During the interview, Serhan said Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), a digital, installment-based payment plan, is likewise gaining popularity in the Middle East.

As of 2021, approximately 51 per cent of Jordanian consumers report a preference for using digital payment methods in ecommerce, compared with 48 per cent in 2020, according to research from Checkout.com and YouGov’s survey of over 13,000 consumers across several Middle Eastern countries. 

The study also showed that 20 per cent of consumers in Jordan used BNPL in the past 12 months.

Thirty-one per cent of those surveyed reported that they had never used BNPL, but plan to in the next 12 months. An additional 30 per cent said that they have no intention to try BNPL at present.

Further economic digitalisation was recognised as the key to achieving the nation’s 2025 Economic Modernisation Vision among 48 per cent of Jordanians surveyed. Advancing digital skills education in the country was similarly considered critical to achieving Jordan’s economic goals, the survey reported.

With the surge in ecommerce comes an increased demand for reliable cybersecurity protection. As for Serhan, the Senior Vice President stressed that Visa invests heavily in cybersecurity.

"We are proud that there is no fraud on our network. Cybersecurity is one of our big investments, as fraudsters are becoming more and more intelligent as we move into the digital world," she said.

As fraudsters and hackers further develop their methods of theft, many fall victim to their techniques. Thus, digital financial literacy is of great importance to prevent such attacks. To combat this issue, Visa has embarked on several efforts to educate users on ecommerce safety and digital financial literacy.

Ultimately, Serhan said, digital payments are vital for increasing the financial inclusion of small and medium enterprises in the Middle East.

"Accepting digital payments is very feasible for small-and medium-sized businesses, as once they start using these payment systems, they can acquire a credit score and find easier access to finance and small loans," she added.

DOHA — Europe faces painful "industrial rationalisation" due to its energy crisis that risks political trouble, the head of Shell warned Sunday, as the oil giant joined a natural gas project in Qatar.

Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden agreed a deal for a 9.3 per cent stake in Qatar Energy's North Field South project, that will play a major role in the Gulf state's effort to increase liquefied natural gas (LNG) production by 50 per cent in the next five years.

At the signing ceremony in Doha, van Beurden said European industry face taking a major hit from the energy crisis, worsened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Europe has reduced consumption "quite effectively, quite significantly" following the loss of 120 million tonnes of Russian gas a year, van Beurden said, but "a lot of this reduction is achieved by switching off industry".

Europe has desperately searched for quick alternatives to Russian gas, but van Beurden said Europe would need large amounts of LNG for decades.

"A lot of people say, turn down the thermostat, or maybe don't switch on the air conditioning," he said.

"But there is also 'why don't we switch off the fertiliser plant that we have' or 'let us scale down on some petro chemicals production in general'. And that rationalisation, if it goes on long enough, becomes permanent."

'Pressure' 

Van Beurden said there have been "some victory laps" in Europe over the way it has reduced demand, but added "some of it is actually bad news for the long term, namely economic or industrial rationalisation".

The Shell chief, who will retire at the end of the year, said industrial cuts could spark some "rejuvenation", but also brought risks.

"To do it at this scale, this abruptness, at a time of economic challenges in general, I think will bring quite a bit of pressure on European economies, and perhaps also a lot of pressures for the political system in Europe," he said.

British-based Shell is the second European company, after France's TotalEnergies, to take a stake in North Field South. 

Twenty-five per cent of the project has been reserved for international energy giants.

Expansion across the North Field, the world's biggest proven gas reserves, is intended to increase Qatar's LNG production by 50 per cent to about 127 million tonnes a year by 2027.

Shell and TotalEnergies took stakes earlier this year in the North Field East zone.

"Natural gas assumes greater importance in light of recent geopolitical turmoil," said Qatar's Energy Minister Saad Sherida Al Kaabi as he welcomed the Shell deal.

WASHINGTON — The US budget deficit fell by half in the past year to $1.4 trillion on the back of a pandemic recovery and as relief spending eased, the government said on Friday.

COVID-related spending on things like unemployment insurance and other programmes have declined following a recovery in the world's biggest economy from the virus outbreak, with businesses returning to normal.

The drop in the budget deficit marks the "largest one-year decrease", said the Treasury Department and White House budget office on Friday.

This was helped by higher individual and corporation tax collections, bolstered by employment growth, with tax revenues for the fiscal year ended September 30 surging a record $850 billion from 2021.

President Joe Biden hailed the big drop as evidence of a resurgent economy just three weeks ahead of November's crucial midterm elections to decide control of Congress.

Hailing the "largest ever decline in the federal deficit", Biden called the development "further proof that we're rebuilding the economy".

The development, he said, was part of "the good news on the economy" that he predicted would help Democrats climb back in the polls, which currently show Republicans poised for victory.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in a statement citing the American Rescue Plan stimulus package, said "today's joint budget statement provides further evidence of our historic economic recovery".

In a statement, officials also added that the US has "more than recovered all of the jobs lost during the pandemic".

The economy added more than 10 million jobs since early 2021, while unemployment returned to its pre-pandemic level.

The figures for the latest fiscal year showed government outlays dipped $550 billion to $6.3 trillion, in part reflecting reductions in COVID-19 related spending.

But spending for categories such as student loans increased, the report added.

This was the first fall in outlays since 2013, Treasury officials told reporters.

Loan forgiveness 

The overall drop in the deficit came after Biden announced plans to forgive part of the country's massive student debt burden, a topic of controversy between Democrats and Republicans.

Republicans accuse Biden of wasting money on the measure, arguing that public funds could be used more effectively.

Loan modifications had a $430 billion impact in September, with a Treasury official acknowledging that loan forgiveness was one of the primary reasons for the increase.

But the department does not expect to see "similar large modifications" in the future unless there were further changes to policy moving forward.

In the latest fiscal year, federal borrowing rose by $2 trillion to $24.3 trillion, still close to the size of the world's biggest economy, data showed.

With soaring inflation bringing a sharp rise in borrowing costs, interest on the public debt came in at $36.6 billion higher than estimated, the Treasury Department said.

The Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark lending rate several times this year to cool surging prices.

In a breakdown, the report on Friday also showed that individuals paid $2.6 trillion in taxes and those from corporations totaled $425 billion.

The Health and Human Services Department spent $1.6 trillion while the Defence Department spent $727 billion and foreign aid came up to an estimated $24.6 billion, the report said.

BRUSSELS — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain, France and Portugal had agreed Thursday to build an energy pipeline linking the Iberian peninsula to the rest of Europe, reviving a project long-resisted by Paris.

The new project, which Sanchez dubbed a Green Energy Corridor, would replace an earlier plan dubbed MidCat that emerged a decade ago but was dropped in 2019 over regulatory and funding issues.

But, with Russia withholding gas deliveries to most of Europe in reaction to sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, there has been a resurgence of interest in a link to bring in much-needed supplies from Spain to the rest of the continent. 

With energy prices soaring, Madrid pushed hard for the revival of the project, with the full backing of Berlin, which has seen Russian gas deliveries via a key pipeline shut off for the indefinite future.

"We have agreed to... a new project to be called the Green Energy Corridor to link the Iberian peninsula to France and therefore to the European energy market between Barcelona and Marseille," Sanchez explained on his arrival for an EU summit on the energy crisis.

Sanchez said that the pipeline would move hydrogen and gas "during a transition period needed by the European energy market".

Spain currently has six liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals for processing gas that arrives by sea which could help the EU boost imports with a better link.

But it only has two low-capacity links to France's gas network, which has connections to the rest of Europe.