Bloomberg Global central banks are approaching the end of the year with a collective shudder at the risky behaviour that their low interest-rate policies are encouraging. Policy makers from European Central Bank (ECB) and the Federal Reserve are among those raising cautionary flags at potentially unsafe investing stoked by their efforts to flood economies with ultra-cheap money. Stock indexes from ...

Bloomberg Prime minister Narendra Modi must invest trillions of dollars on roads and other critical infrastructure if he’s to pull India’s economy out of its slump, with at least half coming from provincial governments that are out of his control. India will need to spend 235 trillion rupees ($3.3 trillion) on infrastructure over the coming decade to return economic growth ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s government fetched a record HK$42 billion ($5 billion) for a plot of land, a sale coming in at the lower end of estimates as the financial hub has been rocked by six months of pro-democracy protests. A tender for the site, which sits atop the high-speed railway station in Kowloon that connects to mainland Chinese cities, was ...

Bloomberg Japan’s measures for encouraging the spread of cashless payments will likely need more funding beyond the end of March and could be extended as part of a planned government stimulus package. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended that Japan consider lengthening the time frame of its measures to support consumption after an October sales tax increase to support the ...

Bloomberg The earliest-available indicators of China’s economic performance point to a continued slowdown in November. Economic growth was already the slowest in almost three decades in the third quarter, and Bloomberg Economics’ gauge aggregating the earliest data from financial markets and businesses shows that continuing, with a worsening picture for trade, sales manager sentiment, and factory prices. While tensions with ...

Bloomberg Thailand backed down on a plan to prohibit three pesticides from December 1 after coming under pressure from farmers, the US government and lobbyists for chemicals companies. The ban on paraquat and chlorpyrifos will be delayed until June 1 next year, industry minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit said in a briefing. Glyphosate — commonly sold as weedkiller Roundup — won’t be ...

Bloomberg Equinor ASA will reduce its focus on the frontier areas of the Barents Sea in another blow to Norway’s ambition to build a new big oil province in its Arctic region. “Our focus going forward will be on the more prolific areas of the Barents Sea,” Tim Dodson, the company’s executive vice president for exploration, said. That means drilling ...

Bloomberg Sasol, South Africa’s second-biggest producer of greenhouse gases after Eskom Holdings SOC, pledged more clarity on plans to reduce its impact on the environment. The company, which together with Eskom also produces pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and particulate emissions, said its long-term strategy will be released in November next year. Sasol has already promised to reduce greenhouse gas ...

Bloomberg It’s been about two years since Kim Jong-un launched a missile capable of hitting the entire US, declared his nuclear weapons programme “complete” and halted all ICBM tests. In that time, the North Korean leader has also become an even bigger threat to America. Kim’s testing freeze ushered in unprecedented diplomacy with US President Donald Trump, leading to historic ...

Bloomberg A trial court sentenced seven people to death for their roles in Bangladesh’s worst terrorist attack, which killed 20 diners, most of them foreigners, in a cafe in 2016. Judge Mojibur Rahman pronounced the verdict in a packed Dhaka courtroom on Wednesday, Dhaka Metropolitan Chief Public Prosecutor Abdullah Abu said at a briefing. The decision brings to a close ...