Tokyo/ Bloomberg Utilities and other companies in Japan pushing ahead with new investments in coal-power plants risk creating 6.22 trillion yen ($57 billion) of stranded assets amid shifts in energy policy and the economics of power generation, according to a study by Oxford University’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. The amount of coal-fired generating capacity planned or ...
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Bank of England warns Brexit would damage UK growth
Bloomberg The Bank of England cut its growth forecasts and issued its strongest warning yet that a vote to leave the European Union would hurt the economy. With just six weeks to go until Britain’s referendum, the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Mark Carney, said there were more signs it was weighing on growth and clouding the ...
Read More »British banks face money laundering crackdown
Bloomberg Prime Minister David Cameron said the U.K. plans to make financial services companies liable for their employees’ complicity in money laundering and fraud, in an extension of proposed laws against tax evasion. Announced to coincide with an anti-corruption summit in London on Thursday, Cameron said the developed world must “get its house in order†and gave further details ...
Read More »Pound halts decline before BOE decision, inflation forecasts
Bloomberg The pound halted a decline versus the euro before the Bank of England announces its latest policy decision and economic forecasts. Sterling has weakened 0.8 percent versus the 19-nation shared currency this month, after strengthening in April in its first monthly gain since November. Its drop resumed as data from construction to manufacturing added to evidence that growth ...
Read More »EU’s East loses economic impetus as funds ebb, new surveys show
Bloomberg Growth in the European Union’s biggest eastern economies probably slowed last quarter, as household spending failed to offset ebbing aid funds and weakening export demand, surveys show. Romania will probably be alone in reporting faster annual growth in January-March among five countries in the region preparing to release fresh statistics, according to Bloomberg surveys of economists for each. ...
Read More »Greeks leery of debt-relief talks as they brace for tax wave
Bloomberg Ioannis Plotas doesn’t share his prime minister’s belief that the start of debt-relief discussions on Monday is a step forward for Greece. Rather, the 52-year-old is worried that the latest hikes in income tax and social security contributions passed by Greek lawmakers on Sunday to appease creditors will drive the dry cleaning shop he runs with his sister ...
Read More »Fed faces 2015 deja vu as markets discount rate-increase chances
Bloomberg For Janet Yellen’s Fed, 2016 is beginning to look all too familiar — another saga of disappointment and downgrade. Last year, Federal Reserve officials started off signaling two interest-rate increases but those plans didn’t work out: Weak first-quarter U.S. growth delayed action in June, international concerns took September off the table and liftoff finally happened in December. This ...
Read More »Bird flu egg boom goes bust as US farms quick to replace flock
Bloomberg America’s egg crisis is over. Not only have shortages disappeared, but there are signs of an emerging glut. U.S. prices have tumbled 75 percent from a record in August, after the biggest bird-flu outbreak ever forced farmers to destroy flocks. Since then, the laying-hen population has rebounded faster than expected while demand languished from home chefs to food ...
Read More »Brevan Howard to liquidate Argentina fund after 18% return
Bloomberg Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP is closing down its dedicated Argentina fund after the country resolved a legal dispute with creditors that had pushed the nation into default. The Argentina Master Fund produced net returns of 18 percent since it was opened to outside investors in January 2015, when the nation was in the midst of its second ...
Read More »General Motors to invest $740 million in Argentina
Buenos Aires /Â AFP General Motors will invest $740 million in its plant in Rosario, Argentina, to produce the Chevrolet Cruze II mostly for export, the US carmaker announced on Thursday. The news came as President Mauricio Macri visited the factory 280 kilometers (174 miles) north of Buenos Aires. The plant expansion will make it possible to produce the Cruze ...
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