International News

Bloomberg Italy is betting that a tax scheme to encourage home renovations will green its economy and create jobs. On the face of it, this low-tech approach is at odds with the European Union’s aim of promoting climate and innovation in exchange for billions of euros of aid money. But the government is convinced that paying citizens to make their ...

Bloomberg More areas of England are set to be placed under lockdown, as the new coronavirus strain puts growing pressure on hospitals. People living in London, Essex and Kent should behave as if they have Covid-19, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in an interview with LBC radio on Wednesday. The spread of the new variant means more parts of the ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned that Italy is reaching the limits on how much debt the government can take on, even as the European Union opens the door to further borrowing. While Italy is pushing ahead with a 38 billion-euro ($47 billion) budget for next year, the growing deficit is becoming unsustainable, Conte said during his year-end press conference ...

Bloomberg European freight forwarders are rejecting contracts to take loads into the UK due to fears the chaos at Dover could be repeated post-Brexit. Transporeon, a German software company that monitors real-time data on freight traffic and rates for more than 100,000 logistics service providers, said a “dramatic number” of freight forwarders had declined to take cargo into the UK ...

Bloomberg Chinese regulators ordered Jack Ma’s online financial titan Ant Group Co. to return to its roots as a provider of payments services, threatening to throttle growth in its most lucrative businesses of consumer loans and wealth management. The central bank summoned Ant executives over the weekend and told them to “rectify” the company’s lending, insurance and wealth management services, ...

Bloomberg Vietnam’s economic growth accelerated in the fourth quarter as exports and manufacturing extended their recovery from the pandemic slump earlier this year. Gross domestic product (GDP) rises 4.48% in the fourth quarter compared to a year earlier, up from a revised 2.69% in the third quarter, the General Statistics Office said. That compared to the median estimate of 4.0% ...

Bloomberg Indonesia has decided to impose a temporary ban on all foreigners from visiting the country on concern over the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus. The restriction will apply from January 1 to 14, with exceptions given to official visits by those holding ministerial-level positions or higher, said Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi in a Monday briefing. Non-citizens ...

Bloomberg A tug-of-war is building for Thailand’s baht as concern about the nation’s virus outbreak counters the support from its current account surplus. Tailwinds for the baht are fading after it breached the key level of 30 per dollar as a jump in domestic infections weighs on economic growth. Traders are now trying to determine if the currency’s recent pullback ...

Bloomberg UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said the trade deal reached with the European Union (EU) should reassure people worried about the economic damage of Brexit and can be an “enormously unifying moment for our country.” London will continue discussions with Brussels over access and equivalence for financial services, the chancellor said after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. has moved to wind down several Irish holding companies that had allowed it to shift billions of dollars in profit to the country, where it was lightly taxed, the Times of London reported, citing company documents. The Irish companies were used to hold its intellectual property for international sales, and Facebook companies around the world would pay ...