The Gulf Cooperation Council has made a preliminary free trade agreement with Pakistan, the six-country bloc comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates announced late Thursday.
The preliminary deal was signed by GCC Secretary General Jasem Al Budaiwi and Pakistan’s trade minister Gohar Ejaz …

A senior official at Iran’s Labor Ministry was sacked after he drew the anger of his superiors with remarks on the severity of Iran’s economic crisis and how it may force the government to sell off valuable territory.
«We once lost 300,000 martyrs not to lose a handspan of our territory,» the official, Sajjad Padam, said in an interview published by the economic outlet Navad-e Eghtesadi …

Oil transactions between China and the Gulf may be settled in Chinese currency, but experts do not foresee an end to the dollar’s dominance soon.
As Saudi Arabia eyes entry into the BRICS group of nations, there are fears that the kingdom’s vast oil reserves alongside China’s economic power could be a blow to the US dollar. But past experiences in Pakistan, along with the yuan’s peg to the dollar, indicate these concerns …