The euro has been struggling since earlier this year, spilling out from countries like Greece and Spain to impact the entire European Union. – Gartner analysts trimmed their worldwide IT spending forecast for 2010, saying they now expect spending increases to reach 3.9 percent, not the 5.3 percent predicted earlier this year. The European debt crisis is the primary culprit.

The economic woes in Europe will have a negative impact on worldw…

BillShrink surveyed more than 300 small businesses, finding many business card issuers have raised rates upward of 15 percent and some cardholders saw rates increase 27 percent in the last three months. – BillShrink, a search engine that compares millions of product and service options against consumer needs, released the results of a study showing small business owners could end up paying more than $420 million in incremental finance charges this year because their cards aren’t getting the same prot…

Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index (Tasi) ended the day up slightly by 0.33% to 6,309.05, with all sectors save Banks and Financial Services and Transport posting increases. Ninety-nine stocks rose, while 23 fell.

The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) ended the day up by 1.18% to 1,853.13, with 19 stocks rising, five falling and two remaining unchanged. DarTakaful posted the largest rise, moving up by 9.47% to Dhs1.85. Emaar, the most active stock by value, also recovered slightly, moving up 3.55% to Dhs3.50.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) moved up 3.89% to 2,673.12 by the end of trading, with all sectors rising. Seven stocks fell, two held steady and 26 rose. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank posted the highest increases, moving up by 10% to Dhs2.95. Developers Aldar and Sorouh were the most traded stocks by value, moving up to Dhs4.74 and Dhs2.67 respectively.

Saudi Arabia has announced that construction of its Jazan Economic City (JEC) has started, in a bid to diversify the kingdom’s economy, Arab News has reported. Located 60 km north of Jazan city, JEC is forecast to attract $30bn of industrial, commercial and residential investments, creating 500,000 direct and indirect job opportunities, according to the project’s master developer, MMC Saudi Arabia. Investors in JEC are allowed 100% ownership of their projects within the city, CEO of MMC, Zaidan Yousef has said.

Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank has said that Dubai’s debt crisis is manageable and will be contained, Reuters has reported. ‘Because of the nervousness in financial markets, the events in Dubai caused everybody to take a second and third look at fragilities,’ he said. ‘I personally think that the Dubai financial problems will be contained and manageable.’

The value of Kingdom Holding’s investments available for sale had dropped by 4.8% to SR5.81bn ($1.55bn) in November, compared to the previous month Reuters has reported. The Riyadh-based firm, owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has attributed the fall to declines of local and international stock markets.

Ahmet Akarli, an economist at Goldman Sachs has said that Dubai and Kuwait will lag behind other Gulf Arab countries as the region’s economies recover, Bloomberg has reported. The economies of the UAE and Kuwait had contracted by around 2.5% in 2009, he said. The UAE will grow 2% in 2010 and 4% in 2011, driven by Abu Dhabi, he added.

Dubai World will meet its main creditors next week to discuss its request to delay payment on $26bn in debt, Reuters has reported. An Abu Dhabi bank executive, who asked not to be named, said Standard Chartered, HSBC, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, along with local lenders Emirates NBD and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank were on the creditors panel.