International News

  Brussels / AFP Belgium on Saturday officially signed the landmark EU-Canada trade accord after a drama that saw Belgian regions threaten to torpedo years of negotiations. “Nothing is simple in Belgium but few things are impossible,” tweeted Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders after signing the pact on behalf of his country. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malstrom, who negotiated the ...

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG’s worker representatives will block investment decisions unless the German carmaker’s management commits to production programs that secure jobs, top labor leader Bernd Osterloh said in an interview. The hard-line stance sets up tense negotiations in the coming weeks over the so-called Future Pact. The labor agreement at Volkswagen’s namesake brand is aimed at cutting costs to ...

  Bloomberg The Brexit squeeze on UK consumers tightened as Apple Inc. and Electrolux AB responded to the falling pound by charging more for their products in Britain. Apple quietly raised the cost of some of its machines including the “Mac Pro” by 20 percent overnight, while Sweden’s Electrolux said it’s boosting the prices of its home appliances by 10 ...

Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp. warned it may be facing the biggest reserves revision in its history as production sank to a seven-year low and profit slid amid a prolonged slump in energy markets. About 3.6 billion barrels of reserves in the Canadian oil sands and the equivalent of another 1 billion barrels of oil in other North American fields may ...

  Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co.’s decision to keep investing in Britain came after the carmaker told the government it might shut down manufacturing in the country after Brexit, according to a person familiar with the private discussions. The Japanese automaker announced it would start making the X-Trail sport utility vehicle and the next-generation Qashqai at the Sunderland plant. But only ...

  Bloomberg PetroChina Co. posted a 77 percent decline in third-quarter profit as a suppressed international oil market and lower domestic natural gas prices eroded earnings at the country’s biggest producer. Net income fell to 1.2 billion yuan ($177 million) in the July-September period, the Beijing-based company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday. Higher ...

  Bloomberg The acrimonious battle at India’s largest conglomerate is showing no signs of resolution as more officials resigned amid reports that an attempt at mediation between the scion of the founding family and ousted head of Tata Sons Ltd. has started. Tata Group Chief Human Resources Officer N.S. Rajan resigned on Friday, according to a company spokesman. On Saturday, ...

  Bloomberg Singapore mall vacancies rose to the highest level in a decade in the third quarter as an oversupply of shop spaces added to muted spending by shoppers. A gauge of mall vacancies rose 0.6 percent to 8.4 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30, even as rents declined 1.5 percent in the quarter, data from the Urban ...

  Reuters Freed from a layer of fusty bureaucracy, India’s state refiners are helping the country evolve an oil market that reflects its status as both the world’s fastest growing major economy and oil consumer. Changes to import rules mean officials from India’s state-owned oil refiners no longer have to stand in the corridors of the Oil Ministry waiting for ...

  Bloomberg The UK economy slowed less than economists forecast in the quarter after the Brexit vote because of a surge in services, providing ammunition for critics of those who warned of a possible fallout before the referendum. The 0.5 percent expansion was better than the 0.3 percent median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey. Services surged 0.8 percent, ...