3 Global Factors Including Trump, Brexit That Could Smash Consumer Spending in 2017

Developed markets such as North America and Europe will be bogged down by slowing consumer spending in 2017, as debt, an ageing population and economic stagnation takes hold, analysts at market research firm Euromonitor International predicted in a new report. Euromonitor said that events such as Brexit and the “Trump effect,” as they called it, creates political instability that will be “a key challenge going into 2017.”

Qatar Petroleum Hunts for Gas Abroad as Local Growth Limited

Qatar Petroleum is exploring for oil and gas in Cyprus and Morocco as part of a strategy to expand the tiny Gulf emirate’s global energy investments. The world’s biggest producer of liquefied natural gas known as QP must cope with local limits on growth as it seeks to expand its LNG business and increase its production and reserves of crude oil and gas, Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, the company’s chief executive officer, said Monday in Doha.

Kuwait Says OPEC, Russia to Fulfill Pledged Oil-Output Cuts

OPEC and its partners will fulfill their implementation of a deal to cut output, having already announced 60 to 70 percent of the promised curbs, Kuwait said. Countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq have announced cutbacks that account for the bulk of the deal reached last year, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Essam Al-Marzouk said Monday.

Kuwait Says Saudi Arabia to U.A.E. Complying With Oil Cuts

Oil producers from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates are complying with production cuts promised last year to stabilize the market, Kuwait’s governor to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said. Qatar, Kuwait and Oman are also complying, having announced cuts to customers, Nawal Al-Fezaia, Kuwait’s OPEC governor, said in an interview Monday in Kuwait City where OPEC’s Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo is scheduled to have talks on the cuts with Kuwait Oil Minister Essam Al-Marzouk and other officials.