Bloomberg UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid presided over the continued easing of austerity last month as departmental spending rose at its fastest pace for any December since 2003 — when Tony Blair was prime minister. The 10.5% increase from a year earlier came as the government pumped money into pay rises in the state-run National Health Service. It ...

Bloomberg Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy offered tax breaks to investors as he seeks to drum up interest in sales of state assets. “Come and we’ll protect your investments,” Zelenskiy said. Five-year holidays for corporate tax will apply to those spending $10 million or more in privatization tenders in 2020 or 2021, he said. Privatization of major assets will start in ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc suppliers plan to begin assembling a new low-cost iPhone in February, people familiar with the plan said, as the company looks to address a wider swath of the global smartphone market ahead of its 5G handsets later this year. The Cupertino, California-based company is expected to officially unveil the new phone as early as March, one person ...

Bloomberg India may be experiencing the most glaring setback among emerging economies, but its double pain of slowing growth and surging inflation is spreading far and wide. While a debate rages over whether the latest data from India points to “stagflation,” a sixth successive quarter of economic deceleration and fifth consecutive jump in price growth are threatening “buy India,” one ...

Bloomberg Chinese vice premier Han Zheng told the World Economic Forum (WEF) that the country’s trade deal with the US won’t hurt rival exporting nations as complaints mount from governments that were left out of the agreement. In the most high-profile remarks on the country’s economic policy since the accord was signed last week, Han said that its commitment to ...

Bloomberg Malaysia is unlikely to suffer any loss in its palm oil business from China, despite Beijing pledging to boost soybean purchases from US amid the trade war, according to the Southeast Asian nation’s trade chief. “I don’t think so,” Malaysia’s Minister of International Trade and Industry Darell Leiking said on Wednesday in a Bloomberg Television interview with Haslinda Amin ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s annual budget faces a further delay after an irregularity emerged in the parliamentary vote that was supposed to approve it, signalling yet another obstacle for a struggling economy. The Constitutional Court will now assess whether the vote in the lower chamber was valid following a request for a ruling from 90 lawmakers, Government Chief Whip Wirat Rattanaset said ...

Bloomberg Indonesian lawmakers agreed to prioritise bills related to jobs, taxation and the relocation of the capital, key to president Joko Widodo’s efforts to boost investment, accelerate growth in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. The three omnibus bills are among the 50 priority legislation for debate and approval this year, Deputy Speaker Muhaimin Iskandar told a plenary session of the parliament ...

Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co will go bankrupt within two to three years, Carlos Ghosn told a defense attorney during more than 10 hours of interviews before the auto executive skipped bail and left Japan. The former chairman and chief executive officer of Nissan Motor Co and Renault SA made the prediction last year in a series of conversations about his ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte and Swedish private equity firm EQT AB have formed a $500 million venture that will invest in solar and wind power generators across India. The O2 Power renewable energy platform, first reported by The Economic Times in November, will draw down on the funds over several years as it finds suitable deals, Temasek and EQT ...