International News

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG responded to criticism from activist investor Chris Hohn with promises to improve profitability and review management pay, seeking to avoid a confrontation as criticism mounts in the wake of the emissions-cheating scandal. The German carmaker agrees with much of the investor’s analysis and is working on a strategy, including financial targets, that will be presented this ...

  Bloomberg Brexit campaigners crying out for Mark Carney to stop talking should get their wish granted next week. With just nine days until a pre-European Union referendum purdah period begins, the Bank of England governor has a few hurdles to jump in the fraught political race that’s dominated his agenda. After his most recent comments dragged him further into ...

  Bloomberg Petroleo Brasileiro SA, the state-run oil producer at the center of Brazil’s biggest ever corruption scandal, offered record-high interest rates to entice investors to its first international bond sale in a year. Petrobras sold $5 billion five-year notes to yield 8.625 percent and $1.75 billion of 10-year notes to yield 9 percent, according to a person familiar with ...

  Bloomberg Brazil’s ethanol producers may get a boost as the government is said to be mulling a higher gasoline tax as it looks to reduce the nation’s widening fiscal deficit. Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles is considering raising the so-called Cide tax on gasoline prices as an alternative to reinstating taxes on financial transactions, Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo ...

  Bloomberg Chile’s central bank kept borrowing costs unchanged for the fifth consecutive month as inflation slowed toward the target range, while maintaining its tightening bias. Policy makers, led by central bank President Rodrigo Vergara, left the key rate at 3.5 percent on Tuesday, as forecast by all 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The pause in rates comes after two ...

  Bloomberg Venezuela is offering oil at the biggest discounts in seven years as the third-largest supplier to U.S. refineries fights to defend its market share from Canadian and Middle Eastern grades. The basket of Venezuelan oil is now more than $12 a barrel cheaper than the benchmark West Texas Intermediate and has averaged a discount of $8.44 this year. ...

  Bali / Bloomberg   It’s clear from the dirt floor, the battered green sofa and the common-use comb hanging from a string next to the door that this is no ordinary bank. Customers here, in a poor corner of eastern Indonesia, borrow cash — and pay back trash. “The program originated from the people, it is managed by the ...

  Beijing / Bloomberg Working holidaymakers from overseas were given a reprieve on Tuesday from being hit with a so-called “backpacker tax” in Australia after a campaign by farmers and the tourism industry. The government, which is in election mode with polls on July 2, had planned to introduce the levy on foreign travellers who are often young and work ...

  Singapore / AP Singapore’s Land Transport Authority said on Tuesday it is investigating Hyundai vehicles following reports of accidents involving sudden acceleration while reversing. In a statement, the authority said it was looking into cases of Hyundai vehicles having “unintended acceleration in reverse gear.” “It is premature to draw any conclusions at this point in time,” it said. The ...

  SHENZHEN / Bloomberg Chinese tech giant Huawei wants Americans to start thinking of it as a stylish smartphone brand. Huawei Technologies Ltd., which pulled out of the US market for network switching gear four years ago due to security fears, became the No. 3 global smartphone seller last year and passed Apple in China. This year, it launched a ...