International News

  Bloomberg Brazil’s central government posted a higher-than-expected primary fiscal surplus in April due to a seasonal windfall, a week after the government of Acting President Michel Temer obtained permission to close the year with the widest budget gap on record. The surplus before interest payments, which excludes results of states, municipalities and state-owned companies, reached 9.8 billion reais ($2.7 ...

  Santiago, Chile / AFP Latin America’s biggest airline LATAM said it will suspend its flights to crisis-hit Venezuela for an indefinite period, following a similar move by German carrier Lufthansa. Chile-based LATAM Airlines group and its Peruvian and Brazilian subsidiaries decided to cut the flights “due to the complex macroeconomic situation that the region is currently going through,” it said ...

  Bloomberg Brazil economists raised their forecast for the benchmark interest rate at year-end following inflation surprises that reinforced the challenge facing Brazil’s prospective central bank chief to rein in prices. Economists’ median forecast for the Selic at year-end rose to 12.88 percent from 12.75 percent the prior week, marking the first increase in the weekly Focus survey conducted May ...

Tokyo / Bloomberg Japan’s retail sales growth stalled, underscoring weakness in private consumption and increasing the likelihood that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will delay a sales-tax increase planned for next year. Sales were unchanged in April from the previous month, a government report showed on Monday. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a 0.6 percent decline. ...

  New Delhi / Bloomberg Hindalco Industries Ltd. shares surged after India’s second-biggest aluminum producer more than doubled profit in the fourth quarter and named a new managing director to lead the company. Hindalco appointed Deputy Managing Director Satish Pai from Aug. 1 to replace D. Bhattacharya, who resigns after helming the billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla-owned company since 2003. Pai, ...

  Mumbai / Bloomberg Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. fell the most in almost two weeks after a fire at a component supplier disrupted supplies prompting the unit of Suzuki Motor Corp. to suspend production at both its factories. Shares of Maruti declined as much as 2.2 percent, the most intraday since May 18. They traded at 4,066.55 rupees, down 1.9 ...

  Perth / Bloomberg Galaxy Resources Ltd., an Australian lithium developer, agreed to acquire joint-venture partner General Mining Corp. in a deal that values its target at A$216 million ($155 million). Shares in the two companies surged. Perth-based Galaxy offered 1.65 new shares for each General Mining share it doesn’t already own, it said in a statement on Monday. The ...

Tokyo / Bloomberg Takata Corp. has ruled out using bankruptcy as a way of mitigating liabilities from its record air-bag recalls and is instead seeking buyers that could take a controlling stake and carry the company through its safety crisis, a person with knowledge of the restructuring process. Lazard Ltd., Takata’s financial adviser, will meet manufacturers as well as financial ...

  Washington / AFP The “breakthrough” deal announced last Wednesday to resume handing out bailout money to Greece sounded like old times: the International Monetary Fund working with European countries again as official lenders to Athens. In the end, however, the anti-global crisis lender again refused to support Greece’s third rescue program with its own financial contribution. The IMF said ...

  Bloomberg Euro-area economic confidence rose for a second month in May as the European Central Bank prepares to present updated economic projections that could provide further clues about the impact of its stimulus programme. An index of executive and consumer sentiment increased to 104.7 from a revised 104.0 in April, the European Commission in Brussels said on Monday. That’s ...