International News

Bloomberg Thailand’s government is ready to take further action to support an economy growing at its slowest pace in nearly five years, and sees room for further interest-rate cuts, the finance minister said. Weeks after passing a stimulus program worth more than $10 billion, the government still has the fiscal space to do more, Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana said on ...

Bloomberg Demand for steel in India could grow at the slowest pace in three years as an economic slowdown in the global industry’s bright spot deepens. Steel consumption in India is likely to increase by less than 6% this fiscal year, according to ICRA Ltd., the local arm of Moody’s Investors Service. That would make it the slowest pace since ...

Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) record 1.76 trillion-rupee ($24.4 billion) payout to the government will give authorities more fiscal options, including possibly reducing its borrowing or boosting spending to spur economic growth. The RBI’s board approved the transfer on August 26, which includes a dividend of 1.23 trillion rupees and 526.4bn rupees from its surplus capital. The dividend ...

Bloomberg German output will probably shrink by 0.2% in the third quarter, putting Europe’s largest economy into recession, according to the DIW economic institute. A DIW gauge of activity fell to 89 points in August, the lowest since late 2012, pointing to another contraction after GDP declined 0.1% in the April-to-June period, the institute said. “Manufacturing is in a crisis ...

Bloomberg Amgen Inc. will pay $13.4 billion for a blockbuster psoriasis drug from Celgene Corp., which is shedding the asset in order to win antitrust regulators’ sign-off for its $74 billion merger with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. The all-cash deal will give Amgen a growing product at a time when the blockbuster biotechnology drugs it made its name on are beginning ...

Bloomberg Argentina bond spreads widened to the most in 14 years after opposition leader Alberto Fernandez ripped the debt-laden country’s accord with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The spread over Treasuries widened 182 basis points to 2,003 basis points, the most since June 2005, after Fernandez said much of the IMF loan had been wasted on financing capital flight out ...

Bloomberg Europe’s antitrust authorities could ease companies’ concerns about the potential fallout from working together by giving them unofficial guidance, according to one of Germany’s top competition experts. Firms in the region are putting off shared projects due to concerns over retroactive regulatory push-back, according to Achim Wambach, a member of a commission created by the German government to review ...

Bloomberg Norway’s biggest investors, with combined asset under management of about $170 billion, are telling companies to make sure they don’t contribute to environmental damage in Brazil’s Amazon as fires roar through the rainforest. Storebrand ASA and pension fund, KLP, are now reaching out to companies and intensifying their research to map out who’s responsible for any potential damage. Storebrand ...

Bloomberg Chinese factories are normally at their busiest during the third quarter, cranking out production of everything from Barbie dolls to miniature trucks in time to ship them over the ocean to the US ahead of the all-important holiday shopping season. This year’s different. Even with President Donald Trump delaying tariffs on $160 billion of toys to smartphones to spare ...

Bloomberg Japan signaled it wanted to lay to rest the threat of new auto tariffs before agreeing to a final trade deal with US President Donald Trump, after he left the door open for slapping levies on the nearly $50 billion sector. Trump said he was not considering imposing punitive duties “at this moment,” after he and Prime Minister Shinzo ...