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CAIRO — Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi has raised the country's minimum wage to 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($116) a month from 1,200 pounds, he said at an event on Saturday celebrating women.

Sisi said the raise would apply to all Egyptian workers and added that pensions would rise by 15 per cent, with pensioners receiving a minimum increase of 150 pounds to take the minimum pension to 900 pounds.

"This was supposed to come out on June 30. But I said this matter cannot wait," the president said.

Egypt has implemented a series of tough economic measures, including devaluing the pound, slashing energy subsidies and introducing a value-added tax, to help meet the conditions of a $12 billion International Monetary fund (IMF) loan. The measures have left many of Egypt's nearly 100 million people struggling to make ends meet.

Remaining fuel subsidies are expected to be cut around mid-2019, and the petroleum minister said last month Egypt would implement an automatic price indexation mechanism on 95 octane petrol starting in April.

Under the measures announced by Sisi, state employees will receive a raise of 7 per cent, or a minimum of 75 pounds, while those not employed in the civil service will receive a 10 per cent raise, also receiving at least 75 pounds.

All state employees will also get a bonus of 150 pounds to help compensate for inflation, Sisi said, urging Egyptians to alter their spending behaviour to help combat rising prices.

"You want to control prices, don't buy things that get more expensive. The matter is simple. By God, by God, by God, anyone selling and buying wants to profit and be successful — if they find that their prices are exaggerated and people don't go buy their commodities, prices will fall," he said. 

The pay increases will cost the state 30.5 billion Egyptian pounds in total, Sisi said, noting that more than 300 billion pounds would be allocated for salaries in the 2019/2020 budget, up from 270 billion in the previous year.

CAIRO — Many of the Egyptians crammed into a tent in a Cairo suburb have been told they are about to be kicked off the government's food subsidy programme because they are too wealthy.

The reason may be a good job, a newish car, a big phone or electricity bill or expensive school fees.

Some people have travelled across the country to reach the tent — the only place where they have the opportunity to convince officials in person that there has been a mistake.

If they fail, they will no longer be able to use a smart card that gives them access to subsidised rice, pasta and other food staples.

Pensioner Gamal Abdel Shakour, one of hundreds of people gathered in and around the tent during a recent visit by Reuters, said he'd been wrongly identified as spending more than 800 Egyptian pounds on his monthly phone bill. 

"How can I be spending more than 800 pounds on my cellphone when my entire pension is roughly 650 pounds? Am I not going to eat?" said Shakour.

Changes to food support are highly sensitive in Egypt, where a decision to cut bread subsidies led to deadly riots across the country in 1977.

The latest effort to reform the 86 billion Egyptian pounds ($4.95 billion) a year food subsidy programme does not touch bread, the country's most important staple, and so far has only targeted one section of society — the better off.

But complaints over the implementation of the scheme are an early sign that Sisi's bid to rein in generous state subsidies used by more than 60 million Egyptians may not be easy.

The officials involved in the latest reforms relocated from an office in a smarter part of the capital after the crowds made locals nervous.

The changes to the subsidy programme that caused bread riots in 1977 were agreed as part of former president Anwar Sadat's International Monetary fund (IMF) loan deal. President Abdel Fattah Sisi's government has also turned to the IMF. In 2016, it signed a $12 billion loan. 

The lender has specified that food subsidies should only reach those most in need. The loan programme also involved raising fuel and electricity prices and a currency float. 

This has contributed to soaring inflation that has eroded consumer spending power. Cheap food has helped ease the pain. 

"With another round of steep energy subsidy cuts to be implemented this summer, the authorities would be mindful of not going overboard and risking food or hunger riots," Naeem Brokerage head of research Allen Sandeep said.

The government has said there will be two more phases of the subsidy card reform, but it has not said who will be targeted. 

Chairmen and generals 

The supply ministry made the first phase of changes to the programme in November when it removed people who were dead or living overseas and then said in February its next target would be those with higher incomes.

"We're talking about board chairmen, board members, head judges and generals, people like that," Supply Minister Ali Al Moselhy told Reuters.

The holders of around 400,000 subsidy cards received the notice at the bottom of their food receipts in March to say they would be removed from the programme in April, a spokesman for the ministry said. 

Along with the 800-pound cellphone bill limit, anyone who spends 30,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,727.12) per child on school fees annually, uses an average of 650KW of electricity per month, drives a car made in 2014 or later or has a high-paying job, would be automatically removed.

The ministry said it would accept complaints until the middle of April and they should be filed online. Many people were so worried that they wanted to do it in person instead. 

"I don't even have an electricity meter, how did they know my name and remove me for electricity consumption?" said Mahmoud Hassan, an older man from Cairo in the tent.

‘More needy people’

Sisi came to power after ousting former president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

He hoped to repair the business environment and attract money back to Egypt after a 2011 uprising and the political turmoil that followed drove investors and tourists away. 

The three-year IMF loan, which will be completed in the second-half of 2019, unlocked badly needed funds that were tied to strict economic reforms. 

While the government has yet to spell out the next phases of the food subsidy reform, the IMF has stressed that it should be aimed at helping the less well off.

"The food subsidy programme remains poorly targeted and inefficient," IMF staff wrote in a regular review of Egypt's economy in January last year.

"Improving targeting could free up resources and reduce poverty among the low and middle income groups." 

The government has also been careful to say that the reforms are not aimed at shrinking the food subsidy bill, rather at targeting those most in need.

"We are here to provide social justice and social peace... We have to maintain our subsidy budget and manage it in a precise manner and to tell people, 'please there are real needs for people who are more needy'," Moselhy said on television.

Despite the complaints in the Cairo suburb, some poorer Egyptians support the food subsidy move. In a working class district of Cairo, one middle-aged woman was shopping for cooking oil. 

"It was the first time I've heard... that there are people who can spend 30,000 pounds on school fees," she said.

"What do they need our subsidy for?" 

LONDON — The British pound rose back above $1.32 on Wednesday as investors eyed receding no-deal risks on another day of high drama in the long-running Brexit saga.

Europe’s stock markets turned higher in afternoon trading, while Wall Street also climbed at the opening bell.

Asian equities mostly rose but traders remain on edge about the global economic outlook, while Brexit continues to hog the headlines.

Britain’s Parliament was due to hold a series of so-called “indicative” votes to seek an alternative Brexit solution as pressure continued to mount on Prime Minister Theresa May to resign if she wanted her own unpopular plan approved.

Sterling had rallied on Tuesday on fresh hope that May would avoid a chaotic no-deal departure from the European Union. Yet, risks remain, according to Societe Generale analyst Kit Juckes.

As uncertain as ever 

Brexit horror-show/soap opera was due to start with debates from 2pm (14:00 GMT) on various options for the way forward as the House of Commons takes control from the government, Juckes said.

“What happens next is as uncertain as ever and one thing is clear — the foreign exchange market... is still seeing risk and positions taken off the table.”

MPs will now choose whether to cancel Brexit, hold another referendum, vote for a deal including a customs union and single market membership, or leave the EU without a deal, though the government is not bound by law to implement the decision.

In a fresh twist, May’s twice-rejected divorce plan could be revived after Brexit hardliner Jacob Rees-Mogg — one of her most vociferous and high-profile critics — said he would back it, while another, Boris Johnson, hinted that he also could.

Wednesday was another... big day in the Brexit process but the indicative votes were not actually going to take place until 7pm (19:00 GMT), meaning any reaction to the results will have to wait until Thursday morning, said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell.

Alphabet soup 

“Most investors’ attention [is] on Westminster and an alphabet soup of parliamentary motions that could shape the future direction of the Brexit grid lock,” said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

Brussels has given London a new extended deadline of April 12 to get May’s deal ratified or find a new way out. That replaced the previous Brexit date of March 29.

“Though avoiding a swift but hard Brexit is good news for the pound, going into a protracted period of uncertainty would continue to damage domestic industries and the currency,” said City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta.

DUBAI — Global ride-hailing giant Uber will acquire its Middle East rival Careem for $3.1 billion in the region's largest technology industry transaction, the two companies announced on Tuesday.

The deal boosts Uber's worldwide presence ahead of a keenly anticipated stock market debut.

"Careem and Uber are joining forces. We have reached an agreement in which Uber will acquire Careem for $3.1 billion," a joint statement said.

Under the deal, Careem will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber but the two app-based transport and delivery companies will continue operating independently, the statement said.

Careem said it will retain its branding, services and separate app in the greater Middle East region. It is expanding its services to include mass transportation, delivery and payments.

Uber will pay $1.4 billion in cash and the remaining $1.7 billion in convertible notes, the joint statement said.

"Uber will acquire all of Careem's mobility, delivery, and payments businesses across the greater Middle East region, ranging from Morocco to Pakistan, with major markets including Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates," it said.

The acquisition comes as Uber prepares for its initial public offering — expected next month — which could, according to some estimates, see the rideshare giant's value increase to $100 billion.

 'Massive, untapped' 

Dubai-based Careem, established in 2012, boasts more than a million drivers and 30 million users across 120 cities in the Middle East and North Africa.

Uber, established in 2010, entered the Middle East market two years after the creation of Careem and the two companies remained in direct competition in a fast-developing market.

Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi described the move as important for the company's expansion plans.

"This is an important moment for Uber as we continue to expand the strength of our platform around the world," Khosrowshahi said.

"Working closely with Careem's founders, I'm confident we will deliver exceptional outcomes for riders, drivers and cities, in this fast-moving part of the world."

Careem chief executive and co-founder Mudassir Sheikha welcomed the acquisition, saying it will be good for customers.

"Joining forces with Uber will help us accelerate Careem's purpose of simplifying and improving the lives of people, and building an awesome organisation that inspires," Sheikha said.

"The mobility and broader Internet opportunity in the region is massive and untapped, and has the potential to leapfrog our region into the digital future." 

The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020.

The two companies said that together they will be better placed to improve the region's transportation infrastructure at scale and offer diverse mobility, delivery and payment options.

It will also speed up the delivery of digital services to people in the region through the development of a consumer-facing super-app that offers services such as Careem's digital payment platform (Careem Pay) and last-mile delivery (Careem NOW), they said.

PARIS — France and China will sign trade deals worth billions of euros on Monday during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping but Paris will also take the opportunity to push back against Beijing’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative.

President Emmanuel Macron wants to forge a united European front to confront Beijing’s advances.

After he and Xi meet later on Monday, the two will hold further talks on Tuesday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker, heads of the EU executive.

Xi arrived in France after visiting Italy, the first Western power to endorse China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative as Rome tries to revive its struggling economy.

The Belt and Road Initiative plan, championed by Xi, aims to link China by sea and land with Southeast and Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, through an infrastructure network on the lines of the old Silk Road.

France says Silk Road cooperation must work in both directions.

An official in Macron’s office said significant progress was expected in terms of opening up the Chinese market for some farm goods, especially poultry.

French officials have also expressed the hope that a multibillion dollar deal for China to buy dozens of Airbus planes could be finalised.

In a column in Le Figaro published on Sunday, Xi made clear he wanted Paris to cooperate in the Belt and Road project, calling for more trade and investment in sectors ranging from nuclear energy, aeronautics and agriculture.

“French investors are welcome to share development opportunities in China. I also hope that Chinese companies can do better in France and make a greater contribution to its economic and social development,” he wrote.

French officials describe China as both a challenge and partner, saying France must remain especially vigilant over any Chinese attempts to appropriate foreign technology for its own means.

The EU is already weighing a more defensive strategy on China, spurred by Beijing’s slowness in opening up its economy, Chinese takeovers in critical sectors, and a feeling in European capitals that Beijing has not stood up for free trade.

“An awakening was necessary,” Macron said in Brussels on Friday. “For many years we had an uncoordinated approach and China took advantage of our divisions.”

As part of efforts to push that approach, Macron will host Merkel and Juncker on Tuesday to meet with Xi to move away from a purely bilateral approach to ties.

 “Macron is not happy to see China win so many prizes in Rome, so he has invented a bizarre European format by inviting Merkel and Juncker as a counterbalance to show that he is the driving force behind European integration,” said one Paris-based Asian diplomat.

RABAT — About 10,000 teachers staged a new protest in the Moroccan capital Rabat on Sunday to demand permanent jobs, hours after police had used water cannon to disperse an overnight demonstration.

The teachers, many of whom had spent the night in the streets of Rabat after the first event, marched from the education ministry to the square in front of Parliament where police had intervened after midnight to prevent them from spending the night in the main Mohammed V Avenue.

They want an end to renewable contracts in favour of permanent jobs that offer civil service benefits, including a better retirement pension.

Morocco, which has avoided the turmoil seen by other countries during and after the Arab Spring of 2011, regularly sees protests though they rarely draw several thousands or involve confrontations with police.

The protest was organised by an alliance of leftist opposition parties, main unions, civil society organisations and university students. The teachers have been striking for three weeks in a row.

The protesting teachers were threatened by the ministry to return to the classroom or be sacked.

“We are not intimidated by the threats of the education ministry’s because we came to claim our right to be integrated in the civil service and defend the public school,” Abdelilah Taloua, a young teacher, told Reuters.

About 55,000 teachers have been hired under the new contract system since 2016 out of 240,000 teachers in total.

The government insists that teachers working by contracts have the same starting salary of 5,000 dirhams (around $520) like regular teachers.

Morocco has come under pressure from international lenders to trim the civil service wage bill and strengthen the efficiency of the public sector.

WASHINGTON/JAKARTA — A US lawmaker on Friday urged current or former Boeing Co. and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees to come forward with any information about the certification programme for the 737 MAX, which has suffered two fatal crashes in five months.

Boeing and the FAA are under global regulatory scrutiny over software and training on the signature aircraft. Boeing risked losing a $6 billion order for the jet on Friday, its first since the world's entire fleet was grounded last week. 

Indonesian airline Garuda said it plans to scrap its order because some passengers are afraid to board the plane, although industry analysts said the deal was already in doubt.

In the United States, the Chairman of the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Peter DeFazio urged people to use the committee's whistleblower web page. 

"It is imperative we continue to ensure we have the highest level of safety for the travelling public," DeFazio said.

American Airlines pilots were preparing to test Boeing's planned software upgrade for an anti-stall system on MAX simulators this weekend, saying they want their own safety guarantees on the software fix.

The 737 MAX was Boeing's fastest selling jet before an Ethiopian Airlines crash near Addis Ababa on March 10, which followed a Lion Air crash in Indonesia on October 29.

Ethiopian and French investigators have pointed to "clear similarities" between the two crashes, which killed 346 people, putting pressure on Boeing and US regulators to come up with an adequate fix. No direct link has been proven between the crashes but attention has focused on whether pilots had the correct information about the "angle of attack" at which the wing slices through the air.

Ethiopia has shared limited information with foreign investigators, Reuters reported on Thursday, and an industry source said Boeing had not yet received any black box and voice recorder data.

Meanwhile, US Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, on Friday raised concerns in a letter to the FAA about regulations that allow aircraft manufacturers to effectively self-certify the safety of their planes and "left the fox guarding the henhouse".

The FAA declined to comment.

The US Justice Department opened a separate investigation this week. The FBI has declined comment.

Garuda CEO Ari Askhara told Reuters on Friday: "many passengers told us they were afraid to get on a MAX 8." 

However, the airline had been reconsidering its order for 49 of the narrowbody jets before the Ethiopian crash, including potentially swapping some for widebody Boeing models. 

Southeast Asia faces a glut of narrowbody aircraft like the 737 MAX and rival Airbus A320neo at a time of slowing global economic growth and high fuel costs. 

"They have been re-looking at their fleet plan anyway so this is an opportunity to make some changes that otherwise may be difficult to do," CAPA Centre for Aviation Chief Analyst Brendan Sobie said.

Indonesia's Lion Air has also said it might cancel 737 MAX aircraft, though industry sources say it is also struggling to absorb the number of planes on order.

Retrofits 

Boeing now plans to make compulsory a light to alert pilots when sensor readings of the angle of attack do not match — meaning at least one must be wrong —, according to two officials briefed on the matter. 

Investigators suspect a faulty angle-of-attack reading led the doomed Lion Air jet's computer to believe it had stalled, prompting its anti-stall system, called MCAS, repeatedly to push the plane's nose down.

Norwegian Air played down the significance of the compulsory light, saying that, according to Boeing, it would not have been able to prevent erroneous signals that Lion Air pilots received before their new 737 MAX plane crashed in October.

Boeing must be cautious with how it characterises the safety alert, risking legal claims by saying it could have made a difference in the crash while not wanting to suggest that the retrofit is meaningless, legal experts said.

The Lion Air plane did not have the warning light installed, and Ethiopian Airlines did not immediately comment on whether its crashed plane had the alert.

But the Ethiopian carrier, whose reputation along with Boeing's is at stake, issued a statement on Friday emphasising the modernity of its safety and training systems, with more than $500 million invested in infrastructure in the past five years.

The Ethiopian crash has set off one of the widest inquiries in aviation history and cast a shadow over the Boeing 737 MAX model intended to be a standard for decades.

Boeing did not comment on the plan to make the safety feature standard, but separately said it was moving quickly to make software changes and expected the upgrade to be approved by the FAA in coming weeks.

Experts said the change needs regulatory approval and could take weeks or months. Regulators in Europe and Canada have said they will conduct their own reviews of any new systems.

Boeing shares have fallen 14 per cent since the Ethiopian crash.

CHICAGO/SINGAPORE — Pressure mounted on Boeing Co. in Washington as US lawmakers called for executives to testify about two crashed 737 MAX jets, even as the world's biggest planemaker worked to return the grounded fleet to the skies.

A Senate panel plans to schedule a hearing with Boeing at an unspecified date, officials said, the first time a US congressional committee has called the company's executives to appear for questioning over the crashes.

The same panel, the Senate Commerce subcommittee on aviation and space, will also question Federal Aviation Administration  (FAA) officials on March 27, likely about why the regulator agreed to certify the MAX planes in March 2017 without requiring extensive additional training.

The Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10 that killed all 157 on board has set off one of the widest investigations in aviation history. Initial reports from investigators say there are clear similarities between the crash and the Lion Air accident that killed all 189 crew and passengers in November. 

While no direct link has yet been established, the MCAS flight control software and related pilot training are at the centre of the investigation, and US lawmakers are questioning the FAA certification of MAX's safety.

Boeing has promised a swift update to the MCAS, and the FAA said the installation of new software and related training was a priority.

However, extra computer-based training will be required after the software update, the pilot union of MAX's biggest customer, Southwest Airlines Co. said on Wednesday, becoming the first major airline union to comment. 

Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association said it had previewed the proposed Boeing training, including a required test, which would be mandatory for Southwest pilots before flying the 737 MAX again.

A Boeing spokeswoman said training on the software update would be provided by the manufacturer, but declined to disclose further details.

Regulators in Europe and Canada have said, however, they will seek their own guarantees of the MAX's safety. 

Mounting scrutiny

The Ethiopian Airlines crash has shaken the global aviation industry and cast a shadow over the Boeing model intended to be a standard for decades to come.

Investigators examining the Lion Air crash are weighing how the MCAS system ordered the plane to dive in response to data from a faulty sensor and whether the pilots had enough training to respond appropriately to the emergency, among other factors.

MCAS is meant to prevent a loss of lift which can cause an aerodynamic stall and send the plane downwards in an uncontrolled way.

The pilots of the doomed Lion Air flight scrambled through a handbook to understand why the jet was lurching downwards in the final minutes before it hit the water, three people with knowledge of the cockpit voice recorder contents said.

Indonesian investigators said the cockpit voice recorder information was leaked to the media and they were due to hold a news conference at 0830 GMT on Thursday.

Boeing has said there was a documented procedure to handle the problem.

The company was sued on Wednesday in federal court in Chicago by the estate of one of the Lion Air crash victims in which the plaintiffs referred to the Ethiopian crash to support a wrongful death claim against the company. 

A Boeing spokesman said the company does not respond to, or comment on, questions concerning legal matters.

The Seattle Times reported the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was joining the investigation into the MAX's certification. An FBI spokeswoman in Seattle would neither confirm nor deny that it was a part of any investigation.

Criminal prosecutors at the US Justice Department, who are also investigating the FAA's oversight of Boeing, have issued multiple subpoenas to Boeing, CNN reported, citing sources briefed on the matter.

For now, more than 350 MAX aircraft are grounded, and deliveries of nearly 5,000, worth more than $500 billion, are on hold. Boeing's shares have fallen 11 per cent since the Ethiopian Airlines crash, wiping $26 billion from its market value.

BRUSSELS — Alphabet unit Google was fined 1.49 billion euros ($1.7 billion) on Wednesday, its third large EU antitrust penalty in two years marking the company’s decade-long regulatory battle in Europe.

The European Union antitrust chief, however, gave a cautious welcome to Google’s measures to boost competition and give Android users a choice of browsers and search apps, suggesting the company’s regulatory woes may be coming to an end.

The European Commission, which said the fine amounted to 1.29 per cent of Google’s turnover in 2018, said that the case focused on the company’s illegal practises in search advertising brokering from 2006 to 2016.

“Today’s decision is about how Google abused its dominance to stop websites using brokers other than the AdSense platform,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told a news conference.

She said its actions meant advertisers and website owners had less choice and likely faced higher prices that would then be passed on to consumers.

The case concerned websites, such as of newspaper or travel sites, with a search function that produces search results and search adverts. Google’s AdSense for Search provided such search adverts. 

The misconduct included stopping publishers from placing any search adverts from competitors on their search results pages, forcing them to reserve the most profitable space on these pages for Google’s adverts and a requirement to seek written approval from Google before making changes to how rival adverts were displayed.

Thriving markets 

The AdSense advertising case was triggered by a complaint from Microsoft in 2010. Both companies subsequently dropped complaints against each other in 2016. 

Google said it was taking action to comply with EU orders in two previous cases, one of which concerned its Android mobile operating system that resulted in a record 4.34 billion euro fine last year while the shopping comparison case led to a 2.42 billion euro fine.

“We’ve always agreed that healthy, thriving markets are in everyone’s interest. We’ve already made a wide range of changes to our products to address the commission’s concerns,” Kent Walker, senior vice-president of global affairs, said in a statement.

“Over the next few months, we’ll be making further updates to give more visibility to rivals in Europe,” he added.

Vestager welcomed the move, saying: “We see positive developments both in the shopping and Android case.”

Google’s foe, the Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace, said regulators should stay vigilant.

“Competitors have withered or died. It’s time for the EU and governments around the world to step in and address the underlying wrong,” its chairman Michael Weber said in a statement. 

OSLO — Norsk Hydro, one of the world's largest producers of aluminium, was battling on Tuesday to contain a cyber attack which hit parts of its production, sending its shares lower.

The company shut several metal extrusion plants, which transform aluminium ingots into components for carmakers, builders and other industries, while its giant smelters in countries including Norway, Qatar and Brazil were being operated manually.

The attack, which began on Monday evening and escalated overnight, affected the company's IT systems for most of its activities.

"Hydro is working to contain and neutralise the attack, but does not yet know the full extent of the situation," the company said in a statement.

It added that the attack had not affected the safety of its staff and it was too early to assess the impact on customers.

The event was a rare case of an attack on industrial operations in Norway. The last publicly-acknowledged cyber attack in the Nordic country was on software firm Visma, when hackers working on behalf of Chinese intelligence breached its network to steal secrets from its clients.

Companies and governments have become increasingly concerned about the damage hackers can cause to industrial systems and critical national infrastructure following a number of high-profile cyber attacks in recent years.

In 2017, attacks later blamed by the United States on Russia and North Korea caused millions of dollars of damage to companies worldwide, crippling computers in industries from shipping to sweet making. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the allegations.

In Ukraine, meanwhile, authorities have seen hackers knock electricity grids and transport systems offline, and an attack on Italian oil services firm Saipem late last year destroyed more than 300 of the company's computers. 

From cars to construction 

Hydro makes products across the aluminium value chain, from the refinement of alumina raw material via metal ingots to bespoke components used in cars and the construction industry.

"Some extrusion plants that are easy to stop and start have chosen to temporarily shut production," said a Hydro spokesman.

The company's hydroelectric power plants were running as normal on isolated IT systems unaffected by the outage.

The Norwegian state agency in charge of cyber security said Hydro contacted them early on Tuesday and that it was assisting the company.

"We are... sharing this information with other sectors in Norway and with our international partners," said a spokeswoman for the Norwegian National Security Authority. She declined to comment on the nature of the attack.

Norsk Hydro's main website page was unavailable on Tuesday, although some of the web pages belonging to subsidiaries could still be accessed. The company was giving updates on the situation on its Facebook page.

"Hydro's main priority now is to limit the effects of the attack and to ensure continued people safety," it wrote in a Facebook post.

Hydro's shares fell 3.4 per cent in early trade before a partial recovery to trade down 0.9 per cent by 11:21 GMT. It was still lagging the Oslo benchmark index, which was up 0.9 per cent.

Hydro, which has 36,000 employees in 40 countries, recorded sales of 159.4 billion crowns ($18.7 billion) last year, with a net profit of 4.3 billion crowns.