Bloomberg China’s central bank pledged more financial support for small and micro businesses while saying it plans to stick to a prudent monetary policy stance this year. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will improve the incentive mechanism for lending to such companies, it said in a statement following a two-day work conference in Beijing. Authorities will make it easier ...

Bloomberg There’s no end of theories on all the ways in which negative interest rates are hurting economies. But in Denmark, where the policy has existed longer than anywhere else, one fear seems to have been put to rest. The central bank in Copenhagen, which uses negative rates to keep the krone pegged to the euro, says its research shows ...

Bloomberg The US assassination of one of Iran’s most powerful generals has the oil industry bracing for something it has long feared and anticipated — direct military confrontation between the two adversaries. In the hours after President Donald Trump ordered the killing at Baghdad airport of Qassem Soleimani, who led Iran’s Quds force, crude oil surged, American workers began to ...

Bloomberg China’s financial regulator said it will implement a series of measures to shore up nation’s troubled smaller banks and insurers while continuing a clampdown on shadow financing, property speculation. The regulator will introduce measures to eliminate bad loans and promote mergers, capital injections and the restructuring of high risk institutions, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said in ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE has condemned a decision by Turkey to send military forces to Libya in a stark violation of the international community’s and UN Security Council’s resolutions on Libya, according to Security Council Committee established pursuant to Resolution 1970 of 2011 to prevent the sale or supply of arms to Libya without its approval. Such a ...

Bloomberg Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas estimates oil prices will have to surge and persist at $90 a barrel for it to impact the central bank’s inflation forecast, Governor Benjamin Diokno said. It’s “too early to say,” Diokno said in a text message when asked if the latest geopolitical development between the US and Iran could threaten inflation targets and impact ...

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Khalid Ali Al Bustani, Director General of the Federal Tax Authority (FTA), announced that 2020 will see further evolution in the development of the FTA’s electronic systems, as part of its efforts to provide clear and simple procedures for managing, collecting and implementing federal taxes, ensuring higher rates of customer satisfaction. Al Bustani said that ...

Bloomberg Duke Energy Corp reached a settlement with North Carolina regulators and environmentalists to close its remaining coal ash ponds in the state, ending a long-running fight over cleaning up waste from power plants. The settlement, which saves the company about $1.5 billion, requires Duke to remove nearly 80 million tons of coal ash. Seven basins will be fully excavated, ...

Bloomberg Suzlon Energy Ltd will offer to restructure debt at a steeper discount than Indian banks have been willing to consider so far, said people familiar with the matter, pushing the wind turbine maker closer towards bankruptcy. The Pune-based company proposes to swap its 113 billion rupees ($1.6 billion) of outstanding debt into 36 billion rupees of new debt, translating ...

Bloomberg A wind turbine floating off the coast in northern Portugal began transmitting electricity to the grid, a crucial step for a technology that could vastly increase the potential for offshore wind power. The WindFloat Atlantic project is backed by European energy companies EDP Renovaveis SA, Engie SA and Repsol SA and uses the floating platform developed by Principle Power ...