TIGUENTOURIN / Reuters Algeria’s state oil firm Sonatrach will exchange crude for refined products with the world’s largest oil trader Vitol, a Sonatrach official said of the rare move that aims to reduce a record fuel import bill. Vitol would receive up to 2 million barrels a month of the OPEC member’s light, sweet crude and would deliver gasoline and …

Bloomberg Morocco attracted bids from France’s Engie SA and EDF Energies Nouvelles to build 800 megawatts of solar power as the North African country seeks to curb energy imports. The French utilities, as well as Riyadh-based ACWA Power International, led groups bidding last month for engineering, procurement and construction contracts, Obaid Amrane, a member of the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable …

Bloomberg A minor tweak in the Bank of Japan’s bond purchases has emboldened investors to bet the central bank is about to wind back monetary stimulus. Going long on the yen is the biggest currency wager for AMP Capital Investors Ltd.’s Nader Naeimi. Singapore-based hedge fund Kit Trading Fund Ltd. started a bet on the yen last week, predicting the …

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. envisions years of tax-reform benefits ahead, even as competitors warned that their rewards may soon start fading away. Last month’s Republican-led legislation cut Citigroup’s effective threshold to about 25 percent in 2018 and company executives said it will go even lower from there, leading the bank to boost its forecast for profitability. That contrasts with JPMorgan Chase …

Bloomberg Philippine central bank Governor Nestor Espenilla said it’s getting harder to cut the reserve requirement ratio for lenders as he’d pledged to do when he took office six months ago, with inflation set to pick up. “We have to be careful that we don’t send the signal that we are lowering the guard in terms of fighting inflation and …

RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s King Salman ordered a deposit of $2 billion to be paid into Yemen’s central bank on Wednesday to shore up the weak Yemeni currency, the Saudi government said. The move was made a day after the Yemeni prime minister issued a public plea for funds to prop up the rial and help stave off hunger …

Bloomberg While the prospect of the European Central Bank’s withdrawal of monetary stimulus is bringing closer the end of an era of record-low borrowing costs in emerging Europe, it isn’t worrying countries both inside the euro area and those just on its eastern fringe. Governments from Slovakia to Croatia say their economies are in much better shape than when investors …

Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) somewhat more upbeat inflation view may not necessarily translate into early rate increases, according to a Bloomberg survey. In their first take since the SNB’s December policy meeting, when the central bank adjusted its forecasts, economists still see Switzerland’s deposit rate staying at a rock-bottom minus 0.75 percent until late 2019. A 25-basis point …

Bloomberg London’s Heathrow Airport put forward proposals for a sloping runway and said the landing strip could be shortened as it seeks to cut 2.5 billion pounds ($3.4 billion) from the cost of expansion plans. Europe’s busiest hub also proposed the phased opening of new terminals and a number of alternative road links as part of a 10-week consultation aimed …

BLoomberg The UK economy isn’t going to pick up for at least the next two years as consumers struggle to lift spending. Respondents to Bloomberg’s first UK survey of 2018 showed few signs of new year optimism. The median forecast for growth this year was kept at 1.4 percent, and no acceleration is seen in 2019. While gross domestic product …