Islamic Finance

Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the European Union and its representative Federica Mogherini had spoken without knowing the reality, on the attempted coup in Turkey, committed, he said, by a "layered structure" comparable Italian Mafia or P2.

"Mogherini would not have to talk," Erdogan said in an exclusive interview to the Italian TV RaiNews24. "It was instead to come to Turkey" as well as European leaders go in the places struck by terrorism. "It ‘s an ongoing coup that made 238 martyrs but no one came here," continued the president turkish. "If they had bombed the Italian parliament Mogherini would have said that was fine? To be concerned about the processes that would follow?", He asked, explaining that the introduction of capital punishment is desired "57% of Turkish citizens": "If the parliament will vote for the death penalty, then no one will say anything. "

After the failed coup, Turkey remains a central concern of economic observers. According to reports from Bloomberg, political instability would become a disaster for the country, which currently finances the majority of its expenditure and investment projects with foreign capital. The opinion of analysts is that the budget deficit will rise up to 4.5% of GDP.

After rumors of recent weeks, the official approval has arrived: Abu Dhabi will have a new banking giant 175 billion dollars of assets. NBAD and First Gulf Bank, respectively the second and the third largest bank in the UAE, today approved their merger. In a joint statement the two banks explain that the merged bank will be the largest in the Middle East and North Africa.

The transaction, which will be completed in the first quarter of next year, will lead to the cancellation of the First Gulf Bank name from the register of the Abu Dhabi stock exchange values. The new institute will be named National Bank of Abu Dhabi, although FGB shareholders will have a majority with 52% of capital.

Iran will sell its oil only accepting Euros as payment, thus cutting out the US dollar; the announcement was made by the Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, the Iranian all-news network Irinn.

The choice of a country member of OPEC, the separation from the American currency, it would be the first attempt to do so after several replacement hypothesis; Iran exports 2.3 million barrels per day since part of the Western sanctions were removed.

The Saudi Arabia sovereign fund invested $ 3.5 billion in Uber, bringing in $ 11 billion for the investment reserves of the American app, now owning 5% of Uber. This is the largest investment ever made in a private company by the fund: its general director Yasir Al Rumayyan will enter the board of directors.

While in the Middle East Uber is spreading more peaceful and comprehensive way, one of the cities where it is growing most is Cairo. As the Financial Times notes, in Saudi Arabia, Uber is popular as a result of the transport needs, due to the fact that women are forbidden to drive.

OPEC fails to take any decision regarding the production, despite the efforts of Saudi Arabia’s accession to merge towards a freeze of the production ceiling. The oil is reacting very badly to this news and collapses on today’s minimum: WTI yields 1.7% to $ 48.16 a barrel and Brent 1.2% to $ 49.09.

After 4 hours of debate, the 13 OPEC oil ministers have not found the agreement. At the opening of the debate this morning, the Minister of Qatar Mohammed Bin Saleh al-Sada said that the cartel expects a sharp decline in non-OPEC production in 2016.

The IMF cut its growth forecast of Saudi Arabia, raising the deficit, as a result of the negative impact exerted by low oil prices.

The warning was launched by the experts of the IMF during the annual mission to Riyadh, which shows a growth estimate of 1.2% compared to 3.5% in 2015. At the same time, experts have raised their estimate on the current account deficit, arising from exchanges of goods and services and financial flows to 9% of GDP and the budget deficit to 14% of GDP.

For most investors, Pakistan is not an investment destination being considered in their investment process. But soon MSCI, the biggest index provider globally, may bring that to a sudden change. On June 14th, MSCI will announce its decision whether to upgrade Pakistan from the current frontier market classification to emerging market classification or not. In the case of a positive decision, emerging markets funds with an estimated 40x the capital of frontier funds will be forced to have a look at the 180 million population nation on the border between Asia and the Middle East.