International News

AMSTERDAM/WAM Dutch inflation eased for the first time in four months in August, though marginally, the preliminary estimate from the Central Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday. Consumer prices logged an annual increase of 3.6 percent in August, following July’s 1-year high of 3.7 percent, dpa reported. Inflation based on the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) also moderated to ...

TOKYO/WAM Japan’s industrial output in July grew 2.8 percent from the previous month as production of semiconductor equipment and electrical devices was boosted by overseas and data centre demand, government data showed on Friday. Japanese news agency Kyodo News reported that the seasonally adjusted index of production at factories and mines was 102.8 against the 2020 base of 100, according ...

HANOI/WAM Vietnam plans to strengthen the existing Law on Advertising with a key focus on social media marketing, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported on Friday. The draft law proposing amendments and supplements to several provisions of the Law on Advertising will be up for discussion at the next session of the National Assembly. Proposals to tighten control, which have sparked ...

TOKYO / WAM The Japanese government on Thursday upgraded its assessment of the economy for the first time in 15 months, citing a modest rebound in private consumption, Kyodo News reported. In its monthly report for August, the Cabinet Office described the economy as “recovering at a moderate pace, although it appears to be pausing in part.” The government used ...

TOKYO / WAM Japan’s current account surplus expanded 41.8 percent from a year earlier to 2.85 trillion yen ($18 billion) in May, the Finance Ministry said Monday. According to Kyodo News, primary income came to a 4.21 trillion yen surplus, the largest since comparable data became available in 1985. It marked a 13 percent year-on-year increase. The total surplus in ...

BLOOMBERG Singapore’s top trade official said the city-state is willing to facilitate a dialogue between the US and China to repair their relationship, as he described growing tensions between the world’s biggest economies as detrimental to the world. US-China tensions “have serious consequences for the rest of the world,” Gan Kim Yong, Singapore minister for trade and industry, told Bloomberg ...

BLOOMBERG UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s deal to solve the bitter dispute with the European Union (EU) over Northern Ireland’s trading arrangements has sparked hope in the City of London that the two sides could finally formalise a pledge to work together on setting rules for banks and financial markets. The so-called memorandum of understanding (MOU) on financial rules may ...

BLOOMBERG Deutsche Bahn AG has selected Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley to advise on the potential sale of its DB Schenker logistics unit, which could be valued at as much as €20 billion ($21.3 billion), people with knowledge of the matter said. The German railroad operator is set to formally hire the two banks after a weeks-long pitching ...

BLOOMBERG Hungarian consumer price growth slowed for the first time in 19 months, giving policy makers room to consider when to start reducing the European Union’s highest key interest rate. Headline inflation, the EU’s fastest, slowed to 25.4% in February from 25.7% the month before, the statistics office said. The data matched the estimate in a Bloomberg survey. It’s too ...

BLOOMBERG Starbucks Corp is investing £30 million ($36.1 million) to open and renovate coffee shops in the UK, pushing on with expansion in a market where profit has dropped due to soaring costs of coffee beans and labour. Starbucks aims to add 100 stores in the UK in the next year, the US coffee chain said as it reported results ...