Bloomberg Sales of fast moving consumer goods in rural India had their slowest growth in seven years as sagging incomes and a broader credit crunch weighed on spending in the country’s hinterland, where the majority of its population lives. Sales growth of corner-store items from tea to toothpastes dipped to 5% across India’s villages in the quarter ended September, tumbling ...

Bloomberg Investors poured a record $735 million into financial-technology ventures in Singapore in the first nine months of this year, according to research from Accenture Plc, which analysed data from CB Insights, Pitchbook and Tracxn. That’s up 69% from the same period a year earlier and exceeds the $642 million raised in all of 2018, the study found. Investments in ...

Bloomberg Singapore said it wants all four of its carriers to introduce 5G services, with half the city-state covered by a standalone network by 2022 to maintain competitiveness in developing technology. The telecom regulator said it will select two network operators to deploy the 3.5GHz spectrum band on a standalone basis, while the two others will get bandwidth for upgrading ...

Bloomberg About 36% of Thailand’s corporate equity is concentrated in the hands of just 500 people, highlighting wealth inequality in the country, a study released by the Bank of Thailand’s research institute shows. Each of these 500 on average amasses 3.1 billion baht ($102 million) in company profits annually, according to the report from the Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic ...

Bloomberg Interest rate cuts are supporting Australia’s economy and housing market, Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe said. “The economy has been through a very soft patch over the past year but it is actually gradually improving, the lower interest rates are working,” Lowe said during a panel event at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings in Washington. Highlighting an upswing ...

Bloomberg Incoming European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said central banks best operate in a regime of independence and President Donald Trump shouldn’t interfere with the US Federal Reserve. “Market stability should not be the subject of a tweet here or a tweet there,” Lagarde said in an interview with CBS ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent John Dickerson. It requires thought ...

Bloomberg Autopista Regis Bittencourt SA, a Brazilian toll road operator ultimately controlled by Italy’s Benetton family, has mandated three banks to sell as much as 1.7 billion reais ($408 million) of bonds in the local market. Banco BTG Pactual SA, Banco Itau Unibanco Holding SA and Banco do Brasil SA have been selected by the Registro, Sao Paulo state-based company ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Thailand is considering imposing additional measures to rein in the currency amid further gains in the baht to a six-year high and worries about economic growth. The economy could be more sensitive to greater currency appreciation, the Bank of Thailand said in minutes of the September 25 monetary policy committee meeting. This would be an “additional ...

Bloomberg India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was unanimous in its view that a deepening economic slowdown is worrying enough to keep interest rates low for longer, the minutes of its latest meeting show. The concern explains Governor Shaktikanta Das’s statement that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would keep its policy stance accommodative for as long as it is necessary ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG’s Singapore investment banking chief Oi Yee Choo is set to join iSTOX, a trading platform backed by Temasek Holdings Pte. Choo will join iSTOX in January as its chief commercial officer and will help drive business growth by building its network of investors and issuers, according to a statement from the company, confirming an earlier Bloomberg ...