International News

Bloomberg Singapore has been moving forward on its aim to be the lead broker of infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia, and is intent on getting the private sector more involved. Globally, government funding accounts for about 40% of infrastructure spending, but in Asia it’s 90% — an “unsustainable” proportion, Indranee Rajah, minister in Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s office, said ...

Bloomberg While Thailand’s surging currency is squeezing exporters, the nation’s largest consumer-electronics retail chain is benefiting as the strong baht attracts customers by making iPhones and Samsung smartphones cheaper. Com7 Pcl’s 72% total return this year through Monday on its stock ranks as the world’s best performance among electronics sellers with a market value of at least $500 million, according ...

Bloomberg As European steel demand comes under growing pressure, two big suppliers to the bloc are betting on online stores to help attract new clients. It may not sound like a groundbreaking plan — Internet shoppers around the world can already order anything from a prefabricated house to a human skull — yet European steel buyers still make most purchases ...

Bloomberg UK government borrowing surged in the first four months of the fiscal year, a reminder of the vulnerability of the public finances as Britain braces for a no-deal Brexit. The budget deficit between April and July stood at 16 billion pounds ($19.4 billion), 60% more than the same period last year, Office for National Statistics figures published on Wednesday ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet on Wednesday agreed to abolish a tax that was used to help finance reunification for all but the very wealthy. From 2021, the so-called “Solidarity Surcharge” will be eliminated for 90% of those currently paying it and another 6.5% will receive partial relief, the finance ministry said in a statement. As a result, expected revenue ...

Bloomberg Nordic leaders said they would seek a common stance on climate talks after a summit in Iceland that was attended by German Prime Minister Angela Merkel. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the region had the responsibility of making sure that it becomes the more environmentally sustainable in the world, while her Swedish colleague Stefan Lofven said it was ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. is making good on a promise the company made following last year’s Cambridge Analytica scandal: It finally finished a feature that will let users separate their internet browsing history from their personal profiles. The move is a risk for the world’s largest social media company because it could make Facebook advertising less accurate and potentially less valuable ...

Bloomberg Argentina promised to use “all available tools” to stabilise the peso after last week’s rout, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it is sending a delegation to visit the country “soon.” The government is working to keep the currency within last week’s range of 45.2 to 60.4 pesos per dollar, newly sworn-in Economy Minister Hernan Lacunza said in ...

Bloomberg South Korean financial regulators will start a probe into sales of derivative products that carry the risk of individual investors losing almost all their money depending on moves in overseas market rates. Those products include 127 billion won ($105 million) of securities tied to the German 10-year government bond yield, according to a statement from the Financial Supervisory Service. ...

Bloomberg Two months of increasingly chaotic protests in Hong Kong are driving investment money out of the city and into Thailand’s ultra-luxury condominiums, according to one of the biggest developers in the Southeast Asian country. Some 40% of the condos in a 52-story Bangkok tower that opened last week have already been sold to buyers from mainland China, Hong Kong, ...