With Japan’s economy softening, its central bank needs to at least consider further steps to support growth. There’s one major hurdle, however, and only Prime Minister Shinzo Abe can remove it. A 2 percent hike in consumption tax, scheduled for October, would shore up Japan’s fiscal position and thus its ability to pay for an aging population. Yet this plan ...

You’d think all the pressure on Huawei Technologies Co. would make life easier for archrivals Nokia Oyj and Ericsson AB. In some senses, things have got harder. The US has intensified criticism of Huawei over the past year, saying its network equipment is vulnerable to exploitation by Chinese state-sponsored actors. That’s led to various bans in Australia, New Zealand and ...

Rarely have policymakers seemed so keen to snap the links that connect global markets, even at the risk of economic self-harm. Theresa May’s dogged pursuit of a Brexit that takes Britain out of the European Union’s (EU) single market and customs union is an obvious own goal, considering the City of London’s global position. The UK’s intransigence has already sent an ...

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has an election to fight. So naturally, his government is touting statistics that show 7 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the fiscal year that ended last month, despite skepticism from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) among others. As for jobs, the official version is that since there’s such high growth in output, they ...

Asia’s central bankers should consider themselves lucky: Unlike their counterparts in the West – with a few exceptions – they have the scope to combat an economic downturn and low inflation through traditional tools. What they may lack, though, is the will to use those assets en masse rather than the ad hoc efforts to date. India made a surprise ...

Measured by attention received, or noise made, London’s climate change protests have been a rousing success over the past week. As ever, there are doubts about whether the campaign of civil disobedience will make any real difference; but it does pose questions about the limits of democratic politics in the age of legislative gridlock. With their banners, their graffiti, their ...

Bloomberg The world economy’s ability to rebound from its recent soft patch will be tested anew as data is released from Washington to Beijing. Federal Reserve officials conclude a meeting on Wednesday amid expectations they won’t change their monetary policy settings as counterparts elsewhere follow its dovish turn. A press conference by Chairman Jerome Powell will be eyed for insights ...

Bloomberg These are troubling times for the New Zealand dollar but a whiff of optimism is in the air. The kiwi has been the worst-performing major currency over the past month, tumbling 3.6 percent, after the central bank said the next policy move was likely to be an interest-rate cut. Disappointing first-quarter inflation numbers helped speed its decline. The double ...

Bloomberg Three months since the Federal Reserve put US interest rates on a prolonged pause, more and more central bankers around the world are getting nervous about tightening monetary policy. Policy makers across Asia, Europe and North America shifted their tones, with Sweden and Canada among them. The caution came in a week of fresh pessimism on the global outlook ...

Bloomberg Philippines central bank Governor Benjamin Diokno said it is only a matter of timing as to when monetary policy is eased after last year’s series of interest-rate increases, even as authorities closely monitor oil prices. A rate cut at the May 9 policy meeting will depend on key data and the outlook on El Nino weather, Diokno said in ...