Singapore / AFP Vietnamese budget carrier VietJet Air said on Thursday it had signed a $3.04 billion deal with US engine maker Pratt & Whitney, underscoring the growth potential of Southeast Asia’s low-cost airline market. The engines will power the 63 Airbus A320neo and A321neo aircraft ordered by the carrier, VietJet said in a statement at the Singapore Airshow. The ...

It’s economists versus the stock market. Economists generally don’t forecast a recession anytime soon. The stock market does — or at least that’s one plausible interpretation of its recent roller-coaster behaviour. Who’s right? We’ll know in a few months. Meanwhile, the dispute highlights the incomplete nature of the present recovery, which has lasted a long time but, to millions of ...

The proposal to freeze oil output at January levels by Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar is a silver lining for the market and crude producers, as it signifies a genuine attempt to reverse sharp slide in oil prices that has pummeled economies, markets and companies. While the deal is preliminary, it’s the first significant cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC ...

For investors seeking reasons to worry about banks, here’s another: They’ve lent a lot of money in currencies that borrowers will have a hard time paying back. The phenomenon illustrates how capital flows work in a financially integrated world — and how they can contribute to booms and busts. As the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank held ...

India, it seems, is replacing China as Asia’s star economy. While China’s growth has slipped below 7 percent, new reports suggest that India’s economy will expand by 7.6 percent in the fiscal year ending in March. Leaving aside the accuracy of these figures, the preoccupation with growth rates has obscured an equally important trend: China is blowing India away in ...

JAKARTA / Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank reduced its main interest rates and reserve ratio for lenders, taking more determined action to boost the economy in the face of political pressure. Governor Agus Martowardojo and his board lowered the benchmark reference rate by 25 basis points to 7 percent, Bank Indonesia said Thursday. That’s in line with the forecasts of 17 ...

Bloomberg Rabobank Groep, the biggest Dutch mortgage lender, recorded a 20 percent rise in full-year profit after loan impairment charges plunged in 2015. Net income jumped to 2.2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) from 1.8 billion euros for 2014, the closely held bank said in a statement on Thursday. Goodwill impairments fell 61 percent to 1 billion euros for the year ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank said it will start conducting open-market operations every business day, strengthening its influence on interest rates. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) introduced daily auctions from Jan. 29 to manage liquidity around the Lunar New Year holiday, a period in which surging demand for funds has led to cash squeezes in the past, and was due ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc is considering selling its Egyptian unit after abandoning a plan to fold it into its Africa business, according to people with knowledge of the plan. The unit, whose presence in Egypt dates back to 1864, may be worth more than $500 million, according to one person familiar, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t ...

Bloombrg Swedish inflation accelerated more than expected last month, easing pressure on the central bank to add to its record stimulus measures. Consumer prices rose an annual 0.8 percent in January, Statistics Sweden said in a statement Thursday. Adjusted for mortgage costs, prices rose an annual 1.6 percent. Analysts in a Bloomberg survey had predicted headline inflation of 0.5 percent ...