International News

  Bloomberg Chile’s jobless rate rose more than expected in the first quarter as two years of sluggish growth finally caught up with the labour market, signaling stronger headwinds for South America’s wealthiest economy. Unemployment rose to 6.3 percent from 5.9 percent in the month-earlier period and from 6.1 percent the year earlier, the statistics agency reported, compared with the ...

  Bloomberg Brazil’s real led losses among its most-traded peers as the central bank intervened to weaken the currency in a bid to slow this year’s rally and support exporters. The real dropped 1.9 percent to 3.5017 on Monday, making it the world’s worst-performing currency after Libya’s dinar. The loss came after the monetary authority sold 40,000 reverse swaps, a ...

  BANGKOK / AP Japan’s foreign minister announced a multibillion-dollar initiative on Monday to promote development in Southeast Asia’s Mekong region, which encompasses parts of Vietnam, Laos and Thailand through which the river flows. In a speech at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Fumio Kishida affirmed the importance of Southeast Asia’s economic prosperity to Japan. He pledged 750 billion yen ($7 ...

  New Delhi / AFP Hundreds of taxi drivers protested in New Delhi on Monday against a ban on diesel cabs, the latest initiative aimed at improving air quality in the world’s most polluted capital. India’s top court on Saturday ordered taxis run on the dirty fuel off the city’s roads, refusing industry requests for more time to switch to ...

  New Delhi / Bloomberg India’s one-year interest-rate swaps dropped to a more than two-week low on optimism the central bank will add more funds to tackle the liquidity deficit in the financial system. The cost to lock in payments on borrowings for one year fell one basis point to 6.66 percent as of 12:30 p.m in Mumbai, the lowest ...

  Tokyo / Bloomberg Takata Corp. raised provisions for its air bag recalls that involve more than a dozen auto manufacturers, after denying reports that the biggest safety crisis in the industry’s history will expand further. The auto parts supplier will book a combined 20.1 billion yen ($189 million) in charges, 16.6 billion of which was decided after reviewing air ...

  Bloomberg When European Central Bank policy makers discuss the fate of the €500-note this week, they may want to consider the case of Fabio Rizzi. After the local politician in the Italian region of Lombardy was arrested on corruption charges in February, police found more than €17,000 including €500- and €200-bank notes stashed in his home, according to the ...

  Paris / AFP France will reject the ambitious TTIP transatlantic trade pact if it endangers the future of French agriculture, President Francois Hollande warned on Sunday. “We in France have to defend a certain number of principles” and be “extremely vigilant as it is the future of agriculture which could be at stake,” Hollande’s office said. French politicians have ...

  Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel’s €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) electric-car push is a boon to another industry seeking to benefit from the shift beyond gasoline: chipmakers such as Germany’s Infineon Technologies AG. The subsidy program, which kicks off in May with rebates for vehicle buyers and plans for 15,000 battery-charging stations, translates into about $300 million of chips by 2019, ...

  Bloomberg A gauge tracking Poland’s manufacturing industry had its second-biggest one-month decline since the global financial crisis in late 2008, marking “an abrupt loss of momentum” at the start of the second quarter, according to Markit Economics. The Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 51 last month from 53.8 in March, remaining above the 50 threshold that separates contraction from ...