International News

  Bloomberg Gold dropped — following four straight weeks of gains — as investors assessed signs China’s economy is struggling to recover ahead of minutes from the Federal Reserve later in the week. Bullion fell 1.1%, after the longest run of weekly gains in almost a year, as it came under pressure from the stronger dollar. The precious metal has ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s baht rebounded so rapidly in the past few weeks on optimism about the country’s tourism-led growth that it’s already hit year-end analyst targets. The currency jumped 2.3% to about 35.45 per dollar this month, leading gains in Asia by a wide margin. In addition to rising forecasts for tourists arrivals, the advance is also being driven by a ...

  Bloomberg Inflation and higher interest rates will push up the UK’s debt serving costs and social welfare spending by more than £50 billion ($60.7 billion) in next fiscal year, according to Financial Times (FT) calculations. The bill for servicing government debt will almost double, to £95 billion ($115.35 billion) from £50 billion ($60.71 billion), given that about £500 billion ...

  Bloomberg The US is imposing export controls on technologies that support the production of advanced semiconductors and turbines, protecting against their “nefarious” military and commercial use. The innovations “are essential to the national security” of the US and meet the criteria for the protection, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security said in a statement. The agency ...

  Bloomberg Irish house prices rise to the highest since 2007 in June, matching the peak seen before the country suffered one of the worst property crashes in Western Europe. It’s taken over 15 years for prices to recover from the property crash that almost bankrupted the country, forcing it to seek an international bailout in November 2010. The national ...

  Bloomberg Argentina’s government has asked the country’s crop export and processing companies to make sales equivalent to $1 billion over the next week as it seeks to bolster reserves. The government discussed with Ciara-Cec, a group that represents more than 40% of Argentina’s exports, a mechanism implemented this week that aims to encourage the sale of crops and bring ...

Bloomberg Hungary’s outlook was revised to negative from stable by Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings as the nation tackles the fallout from war in neighbouring Ukraine and government wrangles with the European Union over billions of euros in funding. The country’s credit grade was maintained at BBB, the second-lowest investment grade, S&P said in a statement. That matches the level ...

  Bloomberg US productivity slumped for a second-straight quarter as the economy shrank, driving another surge in labour costs that risks keeping inflation elevated and further complicates the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tame price increases. Productivity, or nonfarm business employee output per hour, decreased at a 4.6% annual rate in the second quarter after falling at a 7.4% pace in ...

Bloomberg Norway’s inflation exceeded forecasts for a fourth straight month, hitting a new 34-year high and adding pressure on Norges Bank to deliver a bigger interest rate hike this month than it has flagged earlier. Consumer prices rise 6.8% in July from a year earlier, the fastest pace since July 1988, according to data from Statistics Norway on Wednesday. Underlying ...

  Bloomberg Brazil consumer prices tumbled by the most on record in July after President Jair Bolsonaro slashed utility taxes to tame the soaring cost of living and lift his re-election chances. Official data showed consumer prices fall 0.68% compared to June, more than the -0.65% median estimate from analysts in Bloomberg survey. It was biggest monthly drop since the ...