Bloomberg India is urging its power producers to look overseas for new markets as fewer new plants are needed at home amid surplus generation capacity. The Indian government is encouraging state-run power producers to build plants overseas, Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in an interview Saturday. The country is projected to report surplus power supply for the ...
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India’s HPCL to boost oil refining margins
Bloomberg India’s fastest-growing fuel seller will spend $8 billion over the next five years to help its 60-year-old refineries earn profit margins closer to modern processors such as billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. “You can definitely expect $2 to $3 addition to the refining margin,†Mukesh Kumar Surana, chairman and managing director at Hindustan Petroleum Corp., said in ...
Read More »China grapples with a hidden underemployment
Bloomberg Cracks are starting to show in China’s labour market as struggling industrial firms leave millions of workers in flux. While official jobless numbers haven’t budged, the underemployment rate has jumped to more than 5 percent from near zero in 2010, according to Bai Peiwei, an economics professor at Xiamen University. Bai estimates the rate may be 10 percent ...
Read More »US free trade deal making steady progress, avers EU
Bloomberg The European Commission on Monday insisted talks on a huge US free trade deal were on track, rejecting German claims that irreconcilable differences had left the deal dead in the water. “The ball is rolling right now. The Commission is making steady progress,†Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said when asked about comments by German vice chancellor and economy ...
Read More »Mylan to sell EpiPen to quell outcry over US$600 cost
Bloomberg Mylan NV, the drugmaker under fire for pricing its EpiPen emergency allergy shots at $600, said it will introduce a generic version in coming weeks that will halve the price. The generic EpiPen will be identical to the branded product, including device functionality and drug formulation, and cost $300 per two-pack carton, Mylan said in a statement on ...
Read More »Italy manufacturing trust falls on static economy
Bloomberg Italian manufacturing confidence in August fell to the lowest since early last year, as Prime Minister Matteo Renzi struggles with a stagnant economy compounded by the massive destruction from last week’s deadly earthquake. Consumer confidence also fell. The business manufacturing gauge dropped to 101.1 in August, the lowest since Feb. 2015, from 102.9 the previous month. The median ...
Read More »Internet mogul Kim Dotcom demands live-stream of US extradition appeal
AFP Internet mogul Kim Dotcom launched his appeal on Monday against extradition to face video piracy charges in the United States, arguing for his case in New Zealand to be live-streamed to ensure a fair hearing. The German national and founder of the Megaupload file-sharing service, who has permanent residency in New Zealand, faces up to 20 years in ...
Read More »US consumer spending firm, inflation slows
Bloomberg US consumers spent at a solid pace in July while the key PCE index of inflation slowed, the Commerce Department reported on Monday. Consumer spending rose by 0.3 percent from June, with the gain underpinned mainly by automobile purchases while spending on non-durable goods and services declined. That followed an 0.4 percent gain in June, suggesting the consumer ...
Read More »More flights from US spell likely end for Cuba’s ‘mules’
AFP The start this week of the first regularly scheduled commercial flights from the United States augurs the likely demise of Cuba’s “mules†— suppliers of last resort for scarce consumer goods on the island. For more than half a century, commercial air travel between Cuba and the United States was all but non-existent, a victim of frosty Cold ...
Read More »Don’t panic over China private investment crash
Bloomberg Alarmed by a collapse in private investment in China and a surge in state spending? Calm down, say three analysts, who argue that data problems are exaggerating the trend. Investment numbers this year aren’t completely comparable with 2015 because they include firms that recently migrated from the private to the state sector, says Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow ...
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