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STOCKHOLM — As demand for water grows, the world must focus on how the precious resource will be shared among farmers, the energy sector and cities if it is to achieve the United Nations' new development agenda, a World Bank expert said this week.

The world faces a 40 per cent shortfall in water supplies in 15 years due to urbanisation, population growth and growing demand for water for food production, energy and industry, according to a United Nations report published in March.

The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which had focused attention on the needs of poor nations for the past 15 years, included boosting access to clean water and sanitation.

The Sustainable Development Goals, due to be adopted at a UN summit in September to replace the MDGs, broadens water from a narrow access issue to a "fundamental rethink" of how it is managed, said Junaid Ahmad, director at the World Bank's water global practice.

"We're headed into a perfect storm in which over the next 20 years we will see the demand for water growing significantly, driven by thirsty agriculture, thirsty energy and thirsty cities," Ahmad indicated on Sunday on the sidelines of a global water conference in Stockholm.

"If we are to achieve these goals of food and energy security, sustainable urbanisation, and ensure service delivery of water and sanitation to citizens, we now need to figure out how water is going to be allocated across sectors," he said.

Some 2.6 billion people have gained access to clean water since 1990, but more than 660 million still live without access, according to UNICEF and the World Health Organisation.

Ahmad said achieving the new water goal and scaling up access means not only building pipes, but also fixing institutions and improving governance.

Another challenge, he added, is putting a price on water.

"We are in a world in which we are trying to price carbon, but we do not know how to value water," he continued, noting  that because water is a human right, there is an assumption that it should be free.

"Free water is probably the most expensive water for poor people, because whenever you give out free water it's captured by the politically powerful, not by the poor," he indicated.

Other challenges include climate change, which has made the water supply patchy, and the management of groundwater.

"Groundwater is the biggest source of stored water that we have, and yet it has been progressively abused", extracted at a faster rate than it is being recharged, he said.

More than 2 billion people still lack access to toilets, but Ahmad is optimistic that the new goal of universal sanitation coverage by 2030 can be achieved.

"It took developed countries many years to achieve universal access," he added, mentioning that a World Bank simulation showed countries such as France took 25 to 30 years to provide toilets for everybody.

"If we look at history and the pace in which developed countries have changed, then what developing countries are doing today is pretty historic. They are catching up at a very fast rate," he elaborated. 

Separately, an expert described the doom and gloom predictions of increasing battles around the world over water as a myth, with only a handful of disagreements over shared waters leading to armed conflict.

Competition over water has often been cited as having a potential for turning into conflicts between countries fighting to secure the limited resource.

While water is fundamental to development and national security and can contribute to hostile situations, "very few" disagreements have led to conflict, said Therese Sjomander Magnusson of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).

"It is a myth that water leads to war," Magnusson, SIWI's director of transboundary water management, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation late on Sunday on the sidelines of a global water conference.

She said that over the last 50 years, there have been more than 1,800 interactions on transboundary basins, including both conflict and cooperation.

"Only seven disputes have involved violence," she indicated. "During the same time, more than 200 agreements and treaties on transboundary waters have been signed."

Even though population growth and climate change have led to disagreements over water, conflicts were more common on national levels — such as between pastoralists and farmers — than between countries, Sjomander Magnusson added.

In fact, she continued, many governments are looking into dialogue and cooperation when it comes to water, rather than sending armies against each other.

"In an insecure world that we are facing right now, with many unstable situations, what we've seen over and over again is how governments are eager to position themselves as a stable countries open to cooperation," Sjomander Magnusson said.

One unlikely example in which water issues have led to cooperation is discussions between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories over the Jordan River, which runs along their borders, she indicated.

"This is the only platform where these countries have met for the past couple of years," the expert added

She said data sharing has been a sensitive topic in international water negotiations, but is becoming fundamental as countries cope with the effects of climate change.

Climate change will play an integral role in future water cooperation agreements, she stressed.

"Many treaties on transboundary waters probably need to be revised in line with the new climate change data and maybe a bit more flexible to cope with the extreme weather events," Magnusson concluded.

LONDON — The world's emerging economies are allowing their currencies to slide in a quest to remain competitive, following China's devaluation of the yuan and the dollar's strength in anticipation of US rate hikes.

The currencies of emerging nations in Asia have especially suffered in recent weeks from market speculation that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will lift interest rates this year, possibly as soon as September.

According to Societe Generale analyst Kit Juckes, those countries "fear a resumption of significant capital outflows if the Fed does raise rates next month, as well as fear of further [yuan] weakness and concern about the sluggish pace of global growth", all of which are strengthening the dollar, euro and yen. 

Other factors, including slumping prices of oil and natural gas, exports that many emerging economies rely on heavily, are also pulling currencies lower or prompting governments to let their value drop.

On Thursday, Kazakhstan decided to cease intervention to support the Central Asian nation's tenge currency, and allowed it to float freely to cope with the plunging price of oil, its primary export.

The result was an historic 23 per cent drop in value to 257 tenge to the dollar.

The objective of that move, says CMC Markets analyst Jasper Lawler, was to allow Kazakh goods to become more competitive with less expensive foreign imports.  

"The government and central bank decided to let [the tenge] free float in order to compete with the declining currencies of its two biggest trading partners; Russia and China," Lawler indicated.

This month's surprise devaluations of the Chinese yuan, also known as the renminbi, by the country's central bank was similarly viewed by many observers as an effort to reverse the recent slump in exports amid accumulating signs of an economic slowdown.

In response to China's currency cut, Vietnam widened the spread its central bank allows the dong to trade, provoking a fall to its lowest ever level of 22.41 against the dollar.

In doing so, foreign exchange experts said Vietnam effectively devalued the dong for the third time this year.

In Russia, under pressure since 2014 from falling oil prices and the effects of Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict, the ruble resumed its decline against the dollar last week.

The ruble's slump as Russia's economy sank into recession has had serious consequences for the country's neighbours, figuring as a major factor in Kazakhstan's devaluation.

Political factors at play

Such weakening of currencies has been rife across the world's emerging economies, with Lawler pointing to last week's plunge of the South African rand and Indonesian rupee to historic lows against the dollar as examples.

But if Indonesia's currency dip is due largely to depressed prices for commodities it exports, Juckes says the slide of the Brazilian real and Turkish lira extend beyond pure economics.

Brazil, he notes, is facing an enormous corruption scandal as well as flatlining growth, while the drop of Turkey's lira was caused by growing security concerns and increasing political instability.

"It is the weakness of sentiment in [emerging market foreign exchange] which is striking — oil and China's slowdown are the main factors, but the Thai baht is weaker after a deadly bomb blast, the Brazilian real's woes are as much political as economic," says Juckes.

Adding to that febrility is the resurgent dollar being lifted by expectations of looming US interest rate hikes.

When it comes, that move will make returns on greenback investments more lucrative than foreign alternatives, an eventuality already motivating speculators to take such positions while they are still affordable.

But even if worries over China's growth and halting economic activity elsewhere convince US policy makers to postpone a rate hike beyond the anticipated September period, the Fed will almost certainly be the world's first major central bank to begin tightening its monetary policy.

And that, Juckes notes, should motivate investors to exit emerging economies they poured excess liquidity into during the Fed's policy of keeping credit cheap in order to stimulate the world's biggest economy.

WASHINGTON — A cooling of smartphone sales in China suggests the world's biggest market for the devices has reached a saturation point, posing challenges for manufacturers, a research report said last week.

According to a report by Gartner research firm, worldwide smartphone sales in the second quarter showed the slowest growth rate since 2013, increasing 13.5 per cent to 330 million units.

But sales in China were down 4 per cent from a year ago, as growth shifted to other Asian markets and emerging markets in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the report indicated.

"China is the biggest country for smartphone sales, representing 30 per cent of total sales of smartphones in the second quarter of 2015. Its poor performance negatively affected the performance of the mobile phone market in the second quarter," said Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta.

"China has reached saturation — its phone market is essentially driven by replacement, with fewer first-time buyers. Beyond the lower-end phone segment, the appeal of premium smartphones will be key for vendors to attract upgrades and to maintain or grow their market share in China," he added.

The survey confirmed earlier reports on market share: Samsung remained the top seller with a 21.9 per cent market share, but its overall handset sales fell five per cent to 72 million units.

Apple boosted its market share to 14.6 per cent as iPhone sales jumped to 48 million units.

Three Chinese makers rounded out the top five, Gartner found: Huawei at 7.8 per cent, Lenovo at 5 per cent and Xiaomi at 4.9 per cent.

The Google Android operating system remained dominant with 82.2 per cent of the market, but dipped from 83.8 per cent a year earlier, Gartner said. Apple's iOS accounted for 14.6
per cent.

NEW YORK — US oil prices traded below $40 a barrel for the first time since the 2009 financial crisis, ending 2 per cent lower on Friday on signs of US oversupply and weak Chinese manufacturing and notching the longest weekly losing streak in almost three decades.

US crude dipped below the $40 threshold following weekly data that showed US energy firms added two oil drilling rigs earlier this month, the fifth increase in a row. 

The rise in the number of rigs emerging after a second quarter lull in prices is adding to concerns US shale production is proving slow to respond to falling prices, prolonging a global glut.

"Everyone is still looking at it saying 'Wow, you still don't have production coming down,'" said Tariq Zahir, founder at Tyche Capital in Laurel Hollow, New York.

US October crude settled 87 cents, or 2.1 per cent, lower at $40.45 a barrel, having touched a new 6-1/2-year low of $39.86 a barrel. Front-month US crude has fallen 33 per cent over eight consecutive weeks of losses, the longest such losing streak since 1986.

It pared some losses late in the trading session, as US RBOB gasoline futures rebounded from a contract low, on news of a fire in a gasoline making unit at PBF Energy Inc.'s 182,000 barrels per day Delaware City, Delaware, refinery.

Brent oil ended $1.16, or 2.5 per cent, lower at  $45.46 a barrel. It hit a low of $45.07 and threatened to break below $45 a barrel for the first time since March 2009.

Energy markets slid early in the day as world stock and currency markets joined an extended rout across raw materials last week, a slump accelerated on Friday by data showing activity in China's factory sector, a huge user of many commodities, shrank at its fastest pace in almost 6-1/2 years in August.

With deepening gloom over demand growth from the world's second-biggest oil user, and expectations for a significant buildup in surplus oil stocks this autumn, dealers said most oil traders were unwilling to fight the tide.

"The market is stuck in a relentless downtrend," indicated Robin Bieber, a director at London brokerage PVM Oil Associates. "The trend is down — stick with it."

Oil market speculators cut their bullish bets on US crude  to the lowest level in five years, reducing combined futures and options positions in New York and London by 14,884 contracts to 89,035 in the week to August 18, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission said.

The current collapse in oil prices, the second this year, has raised alarm within the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, including some of its core Gulf members. However, there is no indication they will reverse their policy of keeping production wide open to defend market share, delegates told Reuters last week. 

AMMAN — Net profit generated by the Industrial Commercial & Agricultural Company (ICA) fell sharply during the first half of this year.

In a disclosure to the Jordan Securities Commission, the holding company revealed that mid-year 2015 net profit amounted to JD95,267, down from JD0.8 million at the end of June 2014.

The diminished net profit was the result of a drop in sales to JD9.9 million from JD12.3 million registered on June 30, 2014, and lower operational profit which came at JD0.7 million, compared to JD1.3 million, after taking into account production costs.

Signs of lower profitability showed last year when operational profit fell to JD2.3 million and net profit tumbled to JD1 million on December 31, 2014, from JD3.2 million and JD1.9 million respectively in 2013.

The reduced performance was due to a plunge in sales to JD24.6 million in 2014 from JD29.8 million in the previous year.

According to the 53rd annual report covering last year's operations, the company produced 34,000 tonnes of soaps, liquid detergents, cosmetics, and plastic bottles and packs at its plants in Mafraq and Zarqa where 230 workers were employed. Only three employees worked at the holding entity.

Production and marketing activities were processed through three subsidiaries:  United Sulphochemical and Detergents Industries Company, the Unified Soap Industry Company, and Intaj Marketing and Distribution Company.

The report listed Iraq and Syria as key export markets as well as the West Bank, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Morocco.

It mentioned the Civil Service Consumer Corporation and the Military Consumer Establishment among the main domestic channels, noting that ICA's subsidiaries competed in various local and international tenders.

Other clients in Jordan included the Red Cross and United Nations organisations.

Most of the imported supplies were obtained  from China, Iraq and Malaysia.

Board Chairman Nour "Mohammad Shaher" Mahayni wrote in the annual report that the company was considering all modern methods that would help reduce production costs so as to increase sales with competitive prices and face up to regional producers.

Mahayni indicated in a foreword that ICA was trying to overcome the rise in international fuel prices and higher electricity tariffs, that pushed up production costs, by striving to increase export rates as much as possible.

He said that membership in the World Trade Organisation exacerbated the dumping of similar products on the markets from neighbouring countries.

At the end of 2014, the chairman owned 14 per cent of ICA's JD14.6 million capital along with Jordan Islamic Bank whose stake stood at 39 per cent, and Jamaleddin Bahjat Daaboul who held a 17 per cent equity.

As such, the share of the three aforementioned shareholders came at 70 per cent.

The company evaluated its capital investment at JD12.5 million and its working capital at the end of the  first half of this year stood at JD9.6 million when subtracting JD3.9 million of current liabilities from JD13.5 million of current assets.

Current assets included JD4.5 million in cash on hand and at banks as well as post-dated cheques and under collection, JD5.6 million of inventory, and JD2.6 million in net receivables after deducting JD2.9 million as provision for doubtful assets.

The balance sheet as of June 30, 2015 showed net fixed assets amounting to JD12.7 million, mostly property and machinery.

ICA's liabilities included JD3.4 million of notes payable under a "Murabaha" arrangement with Jordan Islamic Bank which extended the company a line of credit against a first degree hypothecation on the lands in Mafraq and Zarqa.

The company rewarded the shareholders with  JD0.7 million in cash dividends at a rate of 5 per cent. No dividends were distributed since 2010.

AMMAN — Jordan has a promising investment environment with many available opportunities and advantages in different sectors, Investment Commission President Montaser Oqlah said Saturday.

At a meeting with Gary Chapman, president of  Dubai National Air Travel Agency (DNATA), and Dana Odwan, chief executive officer of the company's branch in Jordan, Oqlah noted that  the next phase will witness a new strategy in investment and business environment in the Kingdom, according to a commission statement sent to The Jordan Times.

Dnata began trading from a small shop in Bur Dubai souk in 1959 with just two members of staff and now is one of the world's largest air services providers offering ground handling, cargo, travel and flight catering services across five continents, according to the company's website.

Oqlah said the new investment incentives by law guarantees neutrality, transparency and justice in providing exemptions for projects that fall under one sector, in line with unified standards.

The delegates expressed their appreciation for the commission's president and his endeavours to acquaint them on the investment environment in Jordan, and to find solutions to problems they face, the statement added.

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Thursday he would not peg the ringgit to the US dollar or implement capital controls as he sought to calm fears about the sliding currency and capital flight from Southeast Asia's third-largest economy.

Najib, who has come under severe criticism after being embroiled in a scandal over indebted state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), is trying to reassert his leadership over his government and a stumbling economy.

"The flexibility of our exchange rate is important to absorb global adjustments and volatility," Najib said in a statement.

Najib's comments mirrored remarks made by central bank chief Zeti Akhtar Aziz. Zeti, a widely respected economist, last month denied rumours she had resigned from her post after coming under pressure amid investigations into 1MDB.

Analysts said Najib's comments would reassure investors rattled by the political turmoil facing the government and by external factors weighing down the economy, but only to an extent.

"It's important that his message is now consistent with the central bank but in the near term we are unlikely to see any significant impact in the markets," said Rahul Bajoria, regional economist at Barclays in Singapore. 

"To see a positive impact, it will be global dynamics that make an impact as much as the domestic environment," he added.

The ringgit, Asia's worst performer this year with losses exceeding 17 per cent against the dollar, dropped nearly 1 per cent on Thursday despite the comments.

"There's no intention of moving to a less flexible regime like a peg exchange rate regime," Zeti told reporters, adding the fact that international reserves had dipped below the psycologically significant level of $100 billion was not a cause for worry.

Najib has faced criticism for taking his eye off an economy suffering from weak global commodity prices and falling domestic consumption.

The 62-year-old, who also serves as finance minister, met economists from local and foreign financial institutions this week, promising to "proactively manage the economy going forward", he wrote on Facebook.

At the heart of Najib's woes is 1MDB, which has debts of over $11 billion and is being investigated for allegations of graft and financial mismanagement. Najib sits as the chair of its advisory board.

The prime minister sacked his deputy and other Cabinet members last month and replaced the attorney general heading a probe into 1MDB.

His crackdown on criticism has extended to traditional and online media, angering pro-democracy activists. A rally planned for next week calling for Najib's resignation is expected to draw thousands despite being officially barred by authorities.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve (Fed) was divided about whether the US economy is strong enough to withstand an interest rate increase at July's policy meeting, the minutes of the meeting showed Wednesday.

Although policy makers at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting viewed conditions getting closer to allowing the first rate hike in nearly nine years, they cited evidence that the time was not ripe.

As expected, the FOMC left unchanged the benchmark federal funds rate at the zero level, where it has been pegged since late 2008 to support the US economy's recovery from the Great Recession. But Fed Chair Janet Yellen has signalled that a hike is on track this year.

The record of the July 28-29 FOMC meeting gave no clear indication of when the Fed will pull the rate trigger, which some experts had put as early as the next FOMC meeting just four weeks away.

"In our view, the minutes have lowered the probability of liftoff in September and raised the probability for December," Nomura Global Economics said in a client note.

"It's clear... that the committee sees downside risk to its inflation outlook and it may need more evidence that inflation is moving in the right direction," it added.

Moody's Analytics analyst Ryan Sweet said the minutes confirmed that a rate hike at the September 16-17 meeting remained possible, but was "not a slam dunk, and we believe the odds have diminished over the past couple of weeks”.

FOMC participants highlighted tepid inflation, slack in the job market and low wage growth, and risks from China's economic slowdown as they considered raising near-zero borrowing costs.

"Most judged that the conditions for policy firming had not yet been achieved, but they noted that conditions were approaching that point," the minutes said.

Some FOMC participants emphasised the economy had made "significant progress" over the past few years and viewed conditions for a rate hike "as having been met or were confident that they would be met shortly."

A couple worried that an appreciable delay in hiking would result in an "undesirable increase in inflation" or otherwise hurt financial stability, while one member was ready to pull the trigger but would wait for additional data.

Officials generally agreed that job market conditions had improved. However, several noted that "some noticeable margins of slack remained", including a high share of employees working part time because full-time jobs were not available.

Tepid inflation concerns 

Some participants said they did not have enough information to make them "reasonably confident" that tepid inflation would move back to the Fed's 2 per cent target over the medium term, a key element of the Fed's dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment.

"Members are satisfied with improvements in the labour market, but it is inflation that has members leaning one way or the other," said Patrick Newport, US economist at IHS Global Insight.

"That's probably because the inflation numbers are a puzzle. The economy is nearing full employment, productivity has stalled, yet inflation shows no signs of taking off," he indicated.

Earlier Wednesday, the Labour Department reported consumer prices rose a mere 0.2 per cent in July year-over-year, extending a slow rise since April. 

China's slowdown also troubled Fed policy makers.

"While the recent Chinese stock market decline seemed to have had limited implications to date for the growth outlook in China, several participants noted that a material slowdown in Chinese economic activity could pose risks to the US economic outlook," the minutes said.

The FOMC meeting came before China's shock devaluation last week of the yuan, which many observers saw as a sign that its slowdown is deeper than thought.

LONDON — Global oil prices tanked Wednesday to a 6.5-year low as a surprise jump in US crude inventories signalled weak demand in the world's top economy.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for September delivery dived to $40.60 per barrel, a level last seen on March 2009.

The contract, which has lost more than 30 per cent of its value in the past two months, later stood at $40.81, down $1.81 from Tuesday's close.

Brent North Sea crude for October tumbled to $46.81, nearing the lowest level since mid-January.

It later stood at $47.24 in afternoon London deals, down $1.58.

The market was pummelled after the US government's Department of Energy (DoE) reported that American crude inventories rose by 2.6 million barrels in the week to August 14.

That confounded expectations for a drop of 820,000 barrels, according to analysts polled by Bloomberg News.

"The price of US oil has fallen to a fresh six-year low today," said analyst Fawad Razaqzada at trading site Forex.com. "The level of US crude stockpiles actually increased last week, and by 2.6 million barrels, no less."

"The increase was in part because of a major refinery outage in the US Midwest and due to a sharp rise in oil imports, which averaged over 8 million barrels per day (bpd) last week, up a good 465,000 bpd from the previous week," he added.

CMC Markets analyst Jasper Lawler indicated that the increase in crude inventories "was the biggest build in four months and demonstrates the resilience of US oil output despite the falling price".

Reserves of distillates, including heating fuel and diesel, rose 600,000 barrels last week, the DoE said. Analysts had pencilled in a drop of 1.5 million.

And stocks of gasoline or petrol recoiled by 2.7 million barrels, which was far heavier than an anticipated decline of 1.25 million.

The weekly DoE update is a crucial barometer of crude demand in the world's biggest economy, which is also a large producer of shale oil.

Analysts said prices were unlikely to stage a sustained rally because the market remains awash with supplies from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), led by Saudi Arabia.

Analyst Razaqzada cautioned that the oil market remained plagued by slowing Chinese demand, alongside rebounding Iranian oil supplies in the wake of Tehran's nuclear energy deal with the West.

"The prospect of fresh supplies from Iran and potentially weaker demand growth from China and the likes means the global supply glut could be worse than was expected previously," he indicated. "As such, the outlook for oil prices remains bleak." 

Iran last month also reached an agreement with major world powers to rein in its nuclear ambitions in exchange for the lifting of crippling Western economic sanctions, which have restricted its oil exports.

Meanwhile, demand growth is not keeping pace with supply, especially with the slowdown in China, the world's top energy-consuming nation and its second-biggest economy.

AMMAN — Hikma Pharmaceuticals announced Wednesday in a press statement that group revenue reached $709 million during the six months ended June 30, 2015, in line with the first half of 2014.

"The full year 2015 group revenue guidance maintained at around 6 per cent growth in constant currency, or 2 pre cent on a reported basis," it said Hikma indicated in the press release that it launched 40 new products and received 118 product approvals across all countries and markets.

"Branded revenue rose by 16 per cent in constant currency or 9 per cent on a reported basis, resulting from a strong performance in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Algeria, Hikma’s two largest MENA markets," the company said.

In line with expectations, following the extremely strong performance in the prior year, global Injectables revenue increased 3 per cent on a constant currency basis, due to sustaining strong sales across the broad portfolio and have continued to be successful in capturing specific market opportunities.

The successful integration of Bedford is delivering new approvals for US Injectables as Hikma continues to enhance its global injectables product portfolio.