International News

  BEIJING/ AP China’s trading partners are bringing the top UN food standards official to Beijing in a last-ditch attempt to persuade regulators to scale back plans to require intensive inspections of food imports — including such low-risk items as wine and chocolate — that Washington and Europe say could disrupt billions of dollars in commerce. The rule could inflame ...

  Bloomberg Default fears are resurfacing in Singapore ahead of a wall of maturing corporate debt, as a US bankruptcy filing by a firm from the city flags lingering pain despite economic recovery. Pressure to pay down obligations has been unrelenting. Companies excluding banks must repay S$38 billion ($27 billion) of local bonds over the next four years. The maturities ...

  Bloomberg India is asking private equity funds to invest in profit making state-controlled companies as Asia’s third biggest economy seeks to meet its asset sale target of 725 billion rupees ($11 billion) for next financial year. The government is inviting buyout firms to “look into the opportunity of picking up strategic stakes in state assets, whether as a technology ...

  Bloomberg The rupee’s surge and a banking system awash with funds will shift focus to a little-used tool in the Indian central bank’s arsenal before next month’s policy review. The Reserve Bank of India may consider raising the cash reserve ratio for the first time since 2010 if deposits accumulated due to November’s cash ban don’t flee over the ...

  Bloomberg If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try and try again. Indian policy makers appear to have adopted the mantra as they mull setting up a state-run fund manager to resolve stressed assets in the banking system after numerous efforts to fix the problem failed. A “Public Sector Asset Rehabilitation Agency” will help deal with the soured-debt ...

  Bloomberg Netmarble Games, South Korea’s largest maker of mobile phone games, filed to raise as much as 2.7 trillion won ($2.4 billion) in an initial public offering. The company will sell 17 million shares at 121,000 won to 157,000 won apiece, Seoul-based Netmarble said in a filing on Monday. Final pricing will be announced on April 24. At the ...

  Bloomberg Canada’s Finance Minister is sticking by his pledge to lower the nation’s debt ratio, signaling the government won’t push much deeper into deficit when it delivers its budget this week. Bill Morneau said he remains committed to the notion a falling level of debt relative to the total size of the economy shows fiscal prudence. The country’s low ...

  Bloomberg European Central Bank Governing Council member Ignazio Visco said the central bank could step away from its commitment to keep interest rates low for a long time after quantitative easing stops. While the ECB’s current guidance foresees that borrowing costs will stay at current or lower levels “for an extended period” and won’t rise until “well past” the ...

  Bloomberg Meetup.com is taking a leap into the Trump resistance. The New York-based networking site will unveil plans in the coming days to partner with a labor group — under the guidance of a former Hillary Clinton aide — to coordinate protests among more than 120,000 activists already involved with anti-Trump Meetup groups. It’s a risky move for a ...

  Bloomberg The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada will review the business practices of the country’s banks after reports of tellers allegedly pressuring customers to buy products to meet sales goals. The federal agency, which seeks to ensure financial institutions comply with consumer-protection measures, said Wednesday its next review would begin in April and focus on banks’ practices around express ...