Bloomberg The U.K. labor market showed signs of resilience in the face of the referendum on European Union membership as unemployment unexpectedly fell and wage growth accelerated. The jobless rate declined to 5 percent in the three months through April, the lowest since 2005, the Office for National Statistics in London said on Wednesday. Economists in a Bloomberg survey ...

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG plans to bundle the components businesses of its different brands to save costs and will review disposing of peripheral assets, according to people familiar with the matter, part of a sweeping strategy review by CEO Matthias Mueller as he seeks to navigate Europe’s largest carmaker out of the emissions scandal. VW’s senior management presented a plan to ...

  Bloomberg President Vladimir Putin is trying to woo foreign investors into the battered Russian economy by offering a chunk of the world’s biggest miner of diamonds. Russia needs cash to help fill a hole in its budget, the result of a collapse in revenue from plunging oil prices. Putin has proposed selling stakes in state-controlled companies including banks and ...

  Bloomberg While some investors have been quick to blame next week’s Brexit vote for the slowdown in U.K. commercial property sales, there are growing signs the market will stall, whatever the outcome of the referendum. Investors spent £16.9 billion ($24.4 billion) on offices, stores, warehouses and other commercial properties from January through May this year, according to Real Capital ...

  Bloomberg Canadian consumer leverage remained near a record in the first quarter as rising mortgage liabilities offset a gain in disposable income. Credit-market debt including mortgages was 165.3 percent of after-tax income, slightly lower than the 165.4 percent reading in the fourth quarter, Statistics Canada said Tuesday in Ottawa. Persistent strength in the Toronto and Vancouver real estate markets ...

Bloomberg China’s use of administrative measures to control property prices can have painful repercussions for its swelling ranks of homeowners. Just ask Shanghai resident Yi Miaowen. Yi had to cut the price of the apartment he was selling by at least 8 percent after local authorities in March restricted purchases by non-residents, causing two prospective buyers to pull out. “I ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s cabinet approved a tax on undeveloped urban land and rules allowing foreign investors to own 100 percent of retail and wholesale businesses, the official SPA news agency said. The 2.5 percent annual tax on the value of undeveloped land designated for residential or commercial use will be applied in stages to owners of plots ...

  ABU DHABI / EMIRATES BUSINESS Etihad Cargo commenced a new twice weekly A330 freighter service to Brussels Airport in Belgium further strengthening the connectivity options and economic ties between Abu Dhabi and Brussels, and adding freighter capacity to its existing passenger service. The airline already flies a daily passenger service to Brussels with its supporting bellyhold cargo, and the ...

DUBAI / WAM Dubai-based developer Nakheel awarded a AED4 million contract to ILF Consulting Engineers’ Dubai branch for Sewage Treatment Plant, STP, work on Dubai’s Deira Islands. As part of the deal, ILF will oversee the design and supervise construction of the STP and lifting stations, which are due for completion at the end of 2017. The STP will be ...

Paris / AFP A huge overhang in oil stocks lingering across the world will keep a cap on any further oil price rises, the IEA said on Tuesday, even as supply and demand move towards balance by the end of the year. Global demand for oil is steadily rising thanks to solid economic growth, and supply has been curbed by ...