International News

  LIMA / AFP President Barack Obama planned separate talks with the leaders of Australia and Canada before wrapping up the final foreign trip of his presidency. Both countries helped negotiate a multinational trade agreement with the US and nine other Pacific Rim countries. But Congress is unlikely to ratify the deal, dealing a blow to Obama’s once high hopes ...

  Bloomberg The UK’s main corporate lobby is urging the government to clarify what happens on the day after Brexit, seeking to ensure that business isn’t left dangling if the country is unable to strike new trade deals before it leaves the European Union. “Businesses are inevitably considering the cliff-edge scenario—a sudden and overnight transformation in trading conditions,” Paul Drechsler, ...

Lima / AFP Fast-growing Asia-Pacific economies will strike more trade deals among themselves as opposition grows in Europe and the US to globalization, analysts say, warning the West will lose out as the dynamic region powers ahead. The most high-profile victim of recent protectionist sentiments has been a major US-led trans-Pacific deal, which is as good as dead after the ...

  Bloomberg Asia-Pacific leaders are expected to send a strong message in defense of free trade on Sunday as they wrap up a summit that has been overshadowed by US President-elect Donald Trump’s protectionism. The broad consensus at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which features some of the world’s most powerful leaders on both sides of the Pacific, is ...

  Bloomberg Home-loan providers in Australia are selling mortgage bonds at the slowest pace in four years, flocking instead to cheaper debt that doesn’t require collateral. Just A$14.8 billion ($11 billion) of new residential mortgage-backed securities have been issued so far in 2016 by banks and other housing lenders, 36 percent less than at this stage last year, data compiled ...

  Bloomberg The country’s proposed national minimum wage amounts to 20 rand per hour and brings South Africa a step closer to tackling poverty, inequality and unemployment, South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said to reporters in Johannesburg on Sunday. “It is by no means the final figure of what the national minimum wage is going to be,” Ramaphosa said. ...

  Bloomberg China pledges to boost global trade and cooperation by opening up further and giving greater access to foreign investors, President Xi Jinping said on Saturday. China wants to create a level playing field for foreign and local companies so that they can share in the Asian country’s growth, Xi said in a speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ...

  Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co.’s $8 billion deal to buy Harman International Industries Inc. helped breathe some life into a few moribund auto stocks, especially Visteon Corp., as investors speculate that there could be a buying spree of companies that make technology for self-driving cars. Visteon’s shares have surged about 16 percent this week after falling 39 percent this year ...

  Bloomberg The earthquake that struck New Zealand this week could cost the insurance industry as much as NZ$5.3 billion ($3.7 billion), according to catastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide. The insured losses will be at least NZ$1.15 billion, the unit of Verisk Analytics Inc. said in a statement on its website. Most damage to residences will be covered by the Earthquake ...

  Colombo / AFP Sri Lanka’s economy has begun to stabilise after securing a $1.5 billion bailout earlier this year, but the island needs to build its dwindling foreign reserves, the IMF said on Saturday. The Washington-based International Monetary Fund said it had just concluded its first review of Sri Lanka’s economy after announcing the bailout in June and labelled ...