Business

AMMAN — The total value of the Kingdom's imports during the first seven months of this year declined by 12.5 per cent, compared to the same period of last year, statistics showed Monday.

The decrease was attributed to the drop in the value of imported oil and its derivatives as well as steel. 

The value of the Kingdom's total exports also went down by 7 per cent to JD3.2 billion. 

The Department of Statistics (DoS) indicated that national exports dropped by 7.7 per cent by the end of July 2015 to JD2.7 billion.

Data showed an increase in the value of exported clothes and raw phosphate, and a decline in the value of exported fruit and vegetables, raw potash, pharmaceuticals and fertilisers.

As a result, the commercial balance deficit went down by 15.7 per cent in the January-July period of 2015, compared to the same period of the previous year.

Separately, Zarqa Chamber of Industry President Thabit Wirr said the value of the chamber's total exports during the eight months of the year reached $576 million, 1 per cent less than the same period of the previous year.

He indicated that the chamber, covering Zarqa and Mafraq governorates, issued a total of 9,012 certificates of origin during the first eight months of 2015.

Leather and embroideries sector topped the list of the chamber's exports, with a value of $342 million, followed by supply, food, agricultural and livestock at $77 million, and the engineering, electric and IT at $48 million.

Exports to the North American markets accounted for 56.5 per cent of the chamber's total exports with a value of $32 million, Wirr added.

AMMAN — Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone will launch a promotional campaign in the Kingdom between October 11 and 15 to acquaint Jordanian investors with investment opportunities available in the zone to enhance commercial and investment cooperation between Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The campaign, headed by the zone's Chairman Ahmed Bin Saqr Al Qassimi, is aimed at having new investment relations between the two countries and reviewing available opportunities the zone offers.

The campaign also aims at increasing the number of Jordanian companies on its premises, which currently stands over 250 businesses. Rami Jallad, the zone's acting chief executive officer, noted that the trade exchange volume between Jordan and the UAE currently stands at 3 billion dirhams (around JD580 million).

AMMAN — The Romanian adviser for defence and security affairs on Monday said Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta will be visiting Jordan at the beginning of October.

The adviser made his remarks during a meeting with Ghassan Khirfan, Jordan Chamber of Commerce first deputy president.

The Romanian adviser voiced his country's interest to enhance economic and commercial relations with Jordan. Expressing interest in business opportunities, especially in Aqaba.

Ponta will be accompanied by a "high-level" delegation from the public and private sectors, who will discuss several issues and proposals in order to develop bilateral relations and activate signed agreements, according to the adviser.

He also said the visit will include discussing several economic-related issues, particularly increasing Romania's imports of Jordanian fruit and vegetables as well as facilitating measures to issue visas for Jordanian businesspeople.

The adviser and Khirfan agreed to hold meetings between  Jordanian and Romanian businesspeople on the sidelines of Ponta's visit.

HONG KONG — De Beers, the world's largest diamond producer, said Monday the economic slowdown in China and a strong US dollar meant a "challenging" year for the industry, while India would be key to future growth.

Analysts have said global diamond prices could tumble due to a glut as consumer demand weakens.

De Beers announced in July that its underlying earnings had slumped 23 per cent in the first half of 2015 and revised down its production forecast.

"We expect 2015 as a whole to be a more challenging year," said Chief Executive Officer Philippe Mellier in the company's new "The Diamond Insight Report".

"The continued strengthening of the US dollar against all major currencies, coupled with a slowdown in economic growth in China, is likely to lead to global diamond jewellery demand for the full year being relatively flat compared with 2014 levels," the report indicated.

Diamonds are typically denominated in US dollars.

Mellier predicted strong growth would return "once the current stocks have worked through the system".

Turbulence in the Chinese economy saw the devaluation of the yuan and a stocks crash.

It came on the heels of an anti-corruption drive by Chinese President Xi Jinping which has dented the luxury market.

"The challenge in China is that we all got used to growing at exorbitant rates... the industry is having to re-adjust itself," Stephen Lussier, chief executive officer of De Beers' Forevermark jewellery brand, told AFP. 

But the company is still "bullish" about China's role in future, says Lussier, who is in Hong Kong for a jewellery and gem fair. 

China accounts for 16 per cent of global diamond sales, the second largest market after the United States on 42 per cent. India is third with 8 per cent. 

India expansion 

In 2014, the US was the fastest growing consumer market, with a 7 per cent increase in diamond consumption, according to the De Beers report. 

China grew 6 per cent and India 3 per cent. 

Global diamond jewellery demand rose three per cent to exceed $80 billion for the first time, the report pointed out.

It highlighted India as a rapidly developing consumer market.

Despite the industry's tribulations, Lussier remarked that fluctuations in rough diamond prices were unlikely to trickle down to consumers.

"If you look at diamond prices in local currency terms, in many countries they've gone up," he said.

The appetite for rare diamonds also remains untouched, says Jean-Marc Lieberherr, managing director of diamonds at mining giant Rio Tinto.

He is in Hong Kong for the tender of a collection of 65 extremely rare pink and red diamonds, which were unveiled in Sydney in June.

Invite only bidders make their offers in sealed envelopes as the diamonds make a private tour of Hong Kong, New York and Australia's Perth, before the results are announced in October.

"These diamonds are a niche in themselves and they are very much followed by a group of connoisseurs, traders, collectors, and high-end jewellers," Lieberherr indicated. "They know the mine will close one day — when that happens, the value will go through the roof." 

BERLIN — Truckers are warning of the threat of significant costs to the road haulage industry as European nations reimpose long-abandoned border controls to check the greatest migratory flow across the continent since World War II.

Frontier checks that had been swept away in much of Europe to allow free travel are returning to block the path of vast numbers of people seeking refuge, many from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Germany, Austria and Slovakia have all reimposed identity checks on parts of their borders, and Poland and the Netherlands are considering whether to follow suit.

Hungary's riot police this week fired water cannon at migrants on its newly-shuttered border with Serbia, and troops completed a 41-kilometre barbed-wire barrier along part of its frontier with Croatia. 

The threat to the Schengen area, a single zone with borderless travel between 26 states, has an incalculable humanitarian cost. But it has a financial price, too.

"We are experiencing delays for all our trucks. It is the same thing for everyone in the industry," said Cora Buegenburg, operations manager at Allgeier Translog, a German transport group whose lorries drive across the European road network.

"At the moment there are traffic jams everywhere," she added. "But taking alternative, longer routes means extra costs."

Germany set up border checks along its frontier with Austria a week ago to control the human tide. Austria and Slovakia followed. Now Germany is also strengthening its borders with France and the Czech Republic.

Since Monday, massive traffic jams have formed in Germany and Austria.

Disruption ahead 

When trucks are delayed they unload goods late, and are slower to pick up new cargo. It can quickly lead to capacity shortfalls, Buegenburg indicated. "And that pushes up prices."

The slowdown at national borders comes at a time of tight capacity on the European transport network because of an increase in trade, said Sebastian Lechner, managing director of the federation of Bavarian transporters.

Bavaria, the region in southern Germany that has been hardest hit by border checks so far, is crisscrossed by major European transport routes, added Lechner.

All the goods traffic from Italy, a major German trade partner, transits Austria and Bavaria, he remarked.

And as long as the tide of migrants flows towards Europe, it is impossible to predict the scale or duration of the disruption.

If controls were to be established along all the borders of the Schengen area, the loss in earnings for Dutch transport companies alone would amount to 600 million euros ($684 million) a year, assuming a one-hour delay for each border, indicated Renee Reijers, spokeswoman for the Dutch association for transport and logistics.

"More broadly, the return of border controls is a big blow to European competitiveness," the association said.

US and Chinese road hauliers can make long-haul trips without the extra cost of border delays, making industrial products more competitive, it added.

In the European Union, about three-quarters of goods traffic goes by road, with rail far behind.

Traffic snarls 

For Doriano Bendotti, secretary of the north Italian Bergamo section of Italy's road hauliers association, traffic slowdowns had increased in the border region along Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic. 

"But we are not in an emergency situation," he said.

Transport costs to Britain had already climbed because of heightened security procedures in the French port of Calais, he added. Migrants daily try to cross from Calais to Britain, often by smuggling themselves into the backs of trucks.

Traffic snarls are a day-to-day part of the business, said the German association of freight forwarders and logistics. And they can be compensated for in part by planning longer journey times.

Nevertheless, "when a driver is stuck in a traffic jam it is paid work time", the association added. "If the border checks last weeks or longer, then companies in the industry will have to speak to their customers about adjusting prices."

AMMAN — Amman Chamber of Commerce (ACC) President Issa Murad on Sunday met separately with Belgian Ambassador Hendrik van de Velde and Japanese Ambassador Shuichi Sakurai, and discussed with them ways to enhance commercial and investment ties between Jordan and their respective countries at the private sector level.

At the meeting with Van de Velde, Murad spoke about the ACC's plan, along with a big commercial delegation, to visit Belgium during next spring, noting there are many Belgian companies investing in the Kingdom.

The ambassador said a Belgian commercial mission, headed by the foreign minister, is scheduled to visit Jordan next month to open new scopes of bilateral economic cooperation, noting that the delegation comprises companies representing different economic sectors.

During his meeting with Sakurai, Murad expressed ACC's readiness to cooperate with the Japanese embassy in Amman especially by providing it with information and acquainting it with available economic opportunities, in addition to arranging a visit to Japan at the level of the private sector next year.

The Japanese diplomat highlighted Jordan's importance as a safe and stable commercial hub in the Middle East and its role in connecting trade flows among different countries. 

LONDON — The world's leading central banks are facing the risk that their massive efforts to revive economic growth could be dragged down again, with some officials arguing for bold new ideas to counter the threat of slow growth for years to come.

A day after the US Federal Reserve (Fed) kept interest rates at zero, citing risks in the global economy, the Bank of England's (BoE) chief economist said central banks had to accept that interest rates might get stuck at rock bottom.

In Japan, where interest rates have been at zero for more than 20 years, policy makers are already tossing around ideas for overhauling the Bank of Japan's (BoJ) huge monetary stimulus programme as they worry that it will be unsustainable in the future, according to sources familiar with its thinking.

Separately a top European Central Bank (ECB) official said the ECB's bond-buying programme might need to be rethought if low inflation becomes entrenched. But he added monetary policy would not restore economic growth over the long term.

More than eight years after the onset of the financial crisis, the economies of the United States and Britain are growing at a healthier pace, in contrast to those of Japan and in many eurozone countries.

But the risk of a sharp slowdown in China and other emerging economies has prevented the Fed from starting to raise interest rates and is being watched closely by the BoE.

Investors mostly think that the Fed's delay will be short-lived and that it could begin raising rates before the end of the year, followed a few months later by Britain's central bank.

But BoE's chief economist Andy Haldane, who has long been gloomy about the chances of a sustainable recovery, said the world might in fact be sinking into a new phase of the financial crisis, this time caused by emerging markets.

In a speech on Friday that summed up the dilemma for many central banks, he said policy makers had a lot less room for manoeuvre than in the past.

Haldane indicated that the BoE's next move might be to cut its rates below their record low 0.5 per cent rather than proceed with a hike as widely expected. 

But even when interest rates do start to rise, he warned they could be pulled back again to near zero by future problems.

"If global real interest rates are persistently lower, central banks may then need to think imaginatively about how to deal on a more durable basis with the technological constraint imposed by the zero lower bound on interest rates," he said.

"That may require a rethink, a fairly fundamental one, of a number of current central bank practices," Haldane added.

Radical ideas

According to Haldane, possible solutions included giving central banks higher inflation targets or making their emergency bond-buying programmes a permanent part of their armoury, although both options had their downsides.

He raised a third and even more radical possibility: governments issuing electronic rather than paper money, making it feasible for central banks to apply negative interest rates and break the current floor of borrowing costs at zero.

One of the Fed's policy makers even called for the US central bank to set a negative interest rate at Thursday's meeting. But for now, most investors are betting on a less dramatic path for the world's central banks.

Anna Stupnytska, global economist at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, one of the world's biggest fund managers, said the Fed and the BoE remain on course to carry out a few interest rate hikes while the BoJ and the ECB carried on buying bonds.

She hopes the combination of technological advances, more spending by governments on infrastructure and reforms to boost competitiveness will also eventually help move the world economy out of its low-growth, low-inflation rut.

The Fed kept interest rates unchanged on Friday in a bow to worries about the global economy, financial market volatility and sluggish inflation at home, but left open the possibility of a modest policy tightening later this year.

In what amounted to a tactical retreat, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said developments in a tightly linked global economy had in effect forced the US central bank's hand.

"The outlook abroad appears to have become less certain," Yellen told a news conference after the Fed's policy-setting committee released a statement following a two-day meeting.

She said that a recent fall in US stock prices and a rise in the value of the dollar already were tightening financial market conditions, which could slow US economic growth regardless of what the Fed does.

"In light of the heightened uncertainty abroad ... the committee judged it appropriate to wait," Yellen added.

The policy statement also nodded squarely to the global economy as a decisive variable within Yellen's "data-dependent" Fed, warning that recent developments abroad and in financial markets might restrain economic activity somewhat and likely put further downward pressure on inflation in the near term.

But the Fed maintained its bias towards a rate hike sometime this year, while lowering its long-term outlook for the economy.

Fresh economic projections showed 13 of 17 Fed policy makers foresee raising rates at least once in 2015, down from 15 at the last meeting in June.

Traders in futures markets cut bets that the central bank would lift rates by December to around a 47 per cent probability, from 64 per cent before the release of the policy statement.

"We're in the same situation we were in before, which is uncertainty about when are they going to move," said John Bonnell, a senior portfolio manager at USAA Investments in San Antonio, Texas.

Four Fed policy makers now say rates should not be raised until at least 2016, compared to two who felt that way in June. The Fed has policy meetings in October and December.

In deciding when to hike rates, the Fed repeated it wanted to see "some further improvement in the labour market", and be "reasonably confident" that inflation will increase.

'More dovish'

Taken as a whole, the latest Fed projections of slower gross domestic product (GDP)  growth, low unemployment and continuing low inflation suggest that concerns of a so-called secular stagnation may be taking root among policy makers. One policy maker even suggested a negative federal funds rate.

The median projection of the 17 policy makers showed the Fed expects the economy to grow 2.1 per cent this year, slightly faster than previously thought. However, its forecasts for GDP growth in 2016 and 2017 were downgraded.

The Fed also forecast inflation would creep only slowly towards its 2 per cent target even as unemployment dips lower than previously expected. It sees the unemployment rate hitting 4.8 per cent next year and remaining at that level for as long as three years.

The Fed's projected interest rate path shifted downward, with the long-run federal funds rate now seen at 3.5 per cent, compared to 3.75 per cent at the last policy meeting.

Fed officials like board member Jerome Powell and Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart in recent months had publicly endorsed a September rate hike, forming a near majority along with long-standing inflation hawks like Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker. 

Only Lacker, who wanted to raise rates by a quarter percentage point, dissented on Friday.

ROME — Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Friday presented his Cabinet with a draft budget which could inject 27 billion euros into the country's sickly economy next year, if he can get it past Brussels.

The plan for an ambitious programme of tax cuts and investment financed partly through an increased deficit represents Renzi's biggest challenge yet to the way in which the European Commission applies the eurozone's supposedly strict budget rules.

Economists are sceptical that Renzi will be granted the leeway he wants, which he says could potentially free up some 17 billion euros ($19.3 billion) for measures to promote jobs and growth.

"Brussels will allow some fiscal slippage, but not 17 billion euros," Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, said.

But the centre-left premier bullishly insists that his plans are both within the rules and vital to secure the growth Italy needs to put its public finances in order.

"We cannot cut the deficit purely by cutting spending, that is foolish," he said last week.

On top of the funds released by the European Union (EU) rules being applied flexibly, Renzi is counting on higher growth to finance his plans.

The budget presented to the coalition government Friday evening includes revised the gross domestic product (GDP) growth predictions of 0.9 per cent for this year and around 1.6 per cent for 2016.

Pierre Moscovici, EU economics affairs commissioner, was in Rome on Friday to begin the haggling over the detail of the Italian tax and spending plans.

There is concern in Brussels that Renzi's widely trailed plans will slow the pace at which Rome reduces its 2.2-trillion-euro debt mountain, equivalent to more than 130 per cent of the country's entire annual economic output.

Respect the rules 

Moscovici diplomatically rejected suggestions that Renzi was regarded as the naughtiest boy in the euro class.

"Firstly there have been reforms in Italy, which are bearing fruit, notably in the labour market. This is positive and has to be taken into account," he said.

"Secondly, in the Stability and Growth Pact [EU rules] there is provision for flexibility which Italy has already benefited from. We will see under what conditions it can continue to benefit from this or even request further flexibility,"  Moscovici added. 

"At the same time, let us be aware that we have to respect the rules, all the rules. It is in that spirit that I am negotiating, with the desire to reach an accord," he continued.

Italy said earlier this year that it would aim to bring its deficit down to 1.8 per cent of GDP in 2016.

But Renzi has now jettisoned that target in order to fund a fiscal giveaway involving the abolition of a loathed tax on primary residences as well as charges on municipal services and farm buildings.

Officials in Brussels question whether these politically popular measures are the most efficient use of public finances to fuel growth.

"I don't want to comment on internal Italian politics," Moscovici said. "But tax cuts must be the most economically efficient and for the commission that is through a reduction in labour costs. And in any case, where there are tax cuts, there must also be corresponding cuts in public spending."

Growth the priority 

Renzi aides say the tax cuts should be seen as part of a broader 2013-18 programme designed to ease Italians' total tax burden by some 50 billion euros, the bulk of which will involve reductions in corporate and payroll taxes.

Economists expect the 2016 measures envisaged by Renzi to result in the deficit for next year coming in around 2.2 per cent.

This is comfortably under the EU's 3 per cent ceiling but means the reduction in Italy's debt level is likely to be very marginal, and may not happen if growth turns out to be weaker than the government anticipates.

The European Central Bank last week criticised Italy for failing to use its recent windfall gains from lower debt servicing costs to cut its deficit.

But Renzi maintains the priority has to be growth in an economy which has barely expanded in the last decade and a half.

Separately, the economic adviser to Renzi said Italy is confident of getting EU backing for a programme of sweeping tax cuts because only by boosting economic growth can it hope to lower its huge public debt.

Renzi faces tough talks in the next few weeks to convince the European Commission to approve his plan to reduce taxes by 35 billion euros ($39.59 billion) by 2018, instead of using higher tax revenues as the economy grows to accelerate debt reduction.

Yoram Gutgeld, an Israeli mathematician who moved to Italy in 1989, told Reuters the tax cuts were needed to reverse previous austerity measures and generate growth.

"We are now creating a virtuous cycle to unwind a vicious cycle," he said, arguing that Renzi's predecessors had created a "huge recession" by increasing taxation by 50 billion euros since 2011.

Italy's debt is the highest in the eurozone after Greece's. Gutgeld, who has a key role in policy formation, argued it could only be brought down in a lasting way by fuelling a still fragile economic recovery, and tax cuts were crucial to achieve this.

Renzi has long urged Europe to focus more on growth and less on austerity and he now seems determined to take on the commission, if necessary.

Gutgeld defended the strategy and played down the importance of the structural deficit, saying it was a complicated formula which ordinary people didn't understand and that even economists disagreed over how it should be calculated.

Renzi, whose approval ratings have fallen sharply in the last year, plans tax cuts of more than 5 billion euros next year, mainly by abolishing taxation on primary residences, municipal services, agricultural buildings and industrial equipment. He wants to proceed with deeper cuts to corporate tax and income tax in 2017.

He has said next year's budget deficit will remain below the EU's 3 per cent of GDP ceiling, but that he should be allowed to raise it by up to 0.6 percentage points from the current target of 1.8 per cent of GDP.

He may not get all the leeway he wants, but with the eurozone debt crisis defused by the expansionary policies of the European Central Bank, the commission is likely to cut him much more slack than previous Italian governments obtained.

Early this month, Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan began negotiations with top commission officials. These are likely to continue at least until mid-October, when Italy presents its 2016 budget to parliament.

Renzi says he deserves flexibility to reward reforms he has passed in areas such as the banking system and the labour market to try to make the economy more competitive.

Gutgeld said it was natural that observers were sceptical about Italy after "decades of fundamentally bad management and broken promises", but that under Renzi things would be different.

Now a member of parliament, Gutgeld was a director of the management consultancy firm McKinsey until he met Renzi in 2012 and agreed to change career course. "I made a bet that he would change the country," he said.

SHANGHAI — China’s banking regulators must “leave no stone unturned” rooting out illegal activity, the ruling Communist Party’s anti-graft watchdog said on Thursday, intensifying a campaign against graft launched by President Xi Jinping.

Dozens of senior officials have been investigated or jailed since Xi took over the party’s leadership in late 2012 and the presidency in 2013.

“In the past half year Huarong, Great Wall, Dongfang, Xinda, four other asset management companies, and China Merchants Bank have all been investigated, and concrete results achieved,” the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection indicated.

It went on to urge China Banking Regulatory Commission officials to increase their vigilance.

“Handle in accordance with the rules problems of breaches of discipline and the law,” it said. “Ensure no stone is left unturned.”

China’s financial regulators have been under heavy pressure since stock markets began to tumble in mid-June after a long bull run, though the statement made no mention of that.

On Wednesday, the corruption watchdog said Zhang Yujun, the assistant chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, was being investigated for “serious violations of the law”.

Police are also investing three top executives at Citic Securities, China’s largest broker, the official Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.

Separately, sources said this week that angry Chinese authorities have seized up to 1 trillion yuan ($157 billion) from local governments who failed to spend their budget allocations, as Beijing seeks ways to stimulate economic growth which is at its slowest for 25 years.

The huge under-spend, linked to officials’ reluctance to splash out on big-ticket projects while authorities crack down on corruption, supports the argument of some economists that Chinese state investment has grown too slowly this year.

“In the past, local governments had asked for the money. Money was given, but no one acted,” said one of two sources, both of whom are close to the government.

They declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

“Investments were not realised, and the money will be reallocated,” added the source, an economist. He did not elaborate on how the funds would be spent.

The repossessed money will pay for other investments, indicated the sources, as economic growth looks increasingly likely to fall below 7 per cent.

Lacklustre spending growth could be especially costly for China, as higher investment is seen by many as the best way to shore up activity, at least in the short-term, even if it does put deeper reforms on the back burner for now.

One trillion yuan of unspent funds is equivalent to about 6 per cent of China’s projected total government spending for 2015.

The finance ministry was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.

Fiscal spending boost

China’s economy has had a difficult year. Unsteady global demand and a wobbly Chinese housing market are expected to drag full-year growth to 7 per cent in 2015, though many analysts suspect the true figure to be much lower.

A near 40 per cent drop in China’s stock market in the summer and a shock 2 per cent devaluation in the yuan further roiled investors and policy makers.

The devaluation sparked accusations that China had started a round of competitive international currency devaluation.

China, which denies those allegations, has since been at pains to support the yuan, and some government economists said Beijing had decided the best way to stabilise the currency was by steadying the economy through higher fiscal spending.

“If economic growth stabilises, the pressure on capital outflows and the exchange rate could be eased,” said an economist at a commercial bank, who met Premier Li Keqiang to discuss China’s policy over the summer. “The central government is likely to step up spending.”

In another sign China is prepared to crank up fiscal stimulus, the powerful economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), held an internal teleconference on Monday to discuss the ways to stabilise investment growth.

Measures to be taken include dispensing a second round of financing for unnamed construction projects by September, and ensuring that funding for projects paid for by the central government will be ready in the next two weeks.

An initial list of 13 public-private partnerships in project financing has also been announced, the NDRC remarked.

Corruption connection

To the surprise of some in Beijing, China’s unprecedented anti-graft campaign that has felled a powerful ex-domestic security chief, among others, has hindered investment.

While the campaign has been a hit with the public, it has also had the unintended consequence of scuppering spending as fearful officials eager to stay out of trouble resort to early retirement or dither over approving major projects.

That has annoyed Beijing, which has repeatedly threatened to punish procrastinating local governments by recalling their unspent budgets. 

HSBC Bank estimated in May that China had 3.8 trillion yuan of unused fiscal funds carried over from previous years.

“Due to the crackdown [on corruption], most local officials have accomplished nothing,” said the second source, who has ties to the leadership.

Official data showed investment accounted for slightly more than a third of China’s economic growth in the first six months of this year.

Data over the weekend pointed to stubborn weakness in China’s economy. Growth in investment and factory output both missed forecasts in August, suggesting China needs to roll out more policy support to lift activity. 

RIYADH — A veteran executive with oil giant Saudi Aramco, Amin Nasser, has been confirmed as the company’s president, the Dhahran-based firm said Thursday.

Nasser had been interim president and chief executive officer since May when his predecessor, Khalid Al Falih, became health minister. Falih continues as chairman.

Nasser’s appointment came Wednesday at the first meeting of the Saudi Aramco Supreme Council since the company was spun off from the oil ministry in May.

Nasser, who has spent more than 30 years with the firm, is a member of the board of directors and served as senior vice president of upstream operations since 2008.

His confirmation comes as Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, confronts an unprecedented budget crunch after crude prices dropped by more than half in a year to below $50 a barrel.

After the company was separated from the ministry, oversight was given to the new supreme council, chaired by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, a son of the king.