International News

Bloomberg Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro enacted a budget that will likely keep growing in size this year, as the government faces competing demands to spend more during the pandemic and to fund lawmakers’ projects in their home states. Bolsonaro vetoed almost 20 billion reais ($3.7 billion) in expenses, including 12 billion reais that had been set aside for lawmakers’ projects ...

Bloomberg Toronto health authorities will order workplaces across Canada’s biggest city to close if they have more than five confirmed cases of Covid-19. The decision overrides less stringent provincial orders, and follows a similar move by Peel Region, a western suburb. It comes as the city struggles to contain a surge in variant cases that threatens to collapse the local ...

Bloomberg Canadian dealmaking is extending its boom, as a bidding war between two railway operators contributes to a tripling in mergers and acquisitions volumes. Companies from Canada have been involved in $184 billion of transactions this year, including agreed deals and more preliminary proposals, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s up 198% on the same point in 2020 and ...

Bloomberg The US faces a national security “crisis” due to its lack of semiconductor production, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told senators in a hearing on President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan. “It is not an exaggeration to say at the moment that we have a crisis in our supply chain,” Raimondo said Tuesday, calling the production deficiencies “a national security risk ...

Bloomberg Italy is aiming to open the country to tourists in mid-May, pledging a range of measures to protect visitors from the coronavirus as it scrambles to rescue a sector devastated by lockdowns and restrictions on movement. As part of the race to get the industry back on its feet, the Rome-based government will introduce so-called vaccine passports earlier than ...

Bloomberg Brazilian policy makers should have been more cautious when cutting interest rates last year and now need to stress they will raise them as needed to bring inflation to target, according to former central bank President Ilan Goldfajn. Rather than committing to a “partial adjustment” of monetary stimulus, the bank needs to show it’s ready to do whatever is ...

Bloomberg Prime Minster Boris Johnson’s government will set a goal to cut UK carbon pollution by 78% by 2035, deepening an already ambitious target as he seeks to spur global momentum in the fight against climate change and boost relations with US President Joe Biden. The government will adopt the target — a cut relative to 1990 levels — in ...

Bloomberg The US said China continues to focus its policies on exports, and called on its biggest economic rival to implement forceful measures to boost domestic demand. “China’s recovery has been highly imbalanced” since the hit from the coronavirus pandemic, the US Treasury Department said in its semiannual foreign-exchange report. “Stringent containment measures enabled China to quickly resume manufacturing while ...

Bloomberg Razorpay, an Indian startup that facilitates digital payments, is raising $160 million from Sequoia India, Singapore’s sovereign fund GIC Pte and others, tripling its valuation to $3 billion in six months. The Bangalore-headquartered company, which helps businesses to automate their payment systems, will use the funds to expand into banking and lending, make acquisitions and add services in Southeast ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong billionaire brothers Victor and William Fung are exploring selling their stake in Delvaux, a 192-year-old Belgian luxury leather bagmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Fungs are working with advisers and have reached out to prospective suitors on the potential divestment of the asset, the people said. A sale could value the bagmaker at around ...