Bloomberg When South Korean President Moon Jae-in was greeted with four deep bows from de facto Samsung Group chief Lee Jae-yong earlier this month in India, the footage quickly went viral back home. The overseas encounter between two of South Korea’s most powerful men — their first since Moon’s election on an anti-establishment platform last year — struck a chord. ...
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Tax cuts on 50 goods to deny India $2bn in annual revenue
Bloomberg India’s move to slash levies on more than 50 goods will lower revenue by as much as $2.2 billion each year and is raising the prospect of the country missing budget goals again this year. A panel of federal and state finance ministers cut the goods and services tax on items from washing machines and lithium ion batteries to ...
Read More »AI startup Megvii to raise $600mn from Alibaba, Boyu
Bloomberg Megvii Inc., the Chinese developer of facial recognition system Face++, is said to be raising at least $600 million from investors including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Boyu Capital, according to people familiar with the matter. The Beijing-based company, which already counts billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial and one of China’s largest state-backed venture funds as investors, will close ...
Read More »Duterte seeks laws to curb inflation
Bloomberg Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called on lawmakers to pass legislation that will help cool the fastest inflation in five years and spread wealth and power beyond the capital region. In his annual address to Congress, Duterte asked both chambers to prioritise the measure that will remove caps on rice imports to augment supply and cut the price by as ...
Read More »As China’s skies clear, air purifier sales drop
Bloomberg China’s battle to cut notorious air-pollution levels is hurting sales of air purifiers by Royal Philips NV. Revenue from the machines that capture harmful fine particles in homes dropped by a high-single-digit amount in China, in the second quarter, the Dutch maker of hospital scanners and medical gear said in a statement. That left distributors scrambling to adjust inventories. ...
Read More »Belt and Road initiative bolsters China’s Africa ties
Bloomberg Senegal’s decision to become the first African country on the Atlantic coast to sign up to the Belt and Road Initiative shows how quickly the transport network project connecting China by land and sea to Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa is expanding. Lending by China to Africa rose to about $12 billion in 2015 from little more ...
Read More »Power grids stretched as deadly heat wave scorches Asia
Bloomberg A deadly heat wave across Asia is stretching electricity grids from southern China up to Tokyo and Seoul, sending prices to multiyear highs and sparking warnings of more power stress to come. Japan breached records above 41 degrees Celsius (106 Fahrenheit) as the heat that’s been blamed for at least 15 deaths this month pushed electricity rates to the ...
Read More »G-20 meet: Europe shows unity in confronting US trade policy
Bloomberg Finance chiefs from the world’s leading economies met in Buenos Aires at the weekend as trade tensions threaten to undermine the fastest growth in seven years. Finance ministers and central bank chiefs met after US President Donald Trump accused Beijing and the European Union of gaming their currencies to boost exports. He also attacked the US Federal Reserve for ...
Read More »â€˜Trade tensions threaten global economic growth’
Bloomberg Trade tensions threaten global growth as the engines of leading economies fall out of sync, the world’s top finance chiefs warned. Global growth remains robust and many emerging-market countries are better prepared to face crises, but risks to the world economy have increased, finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations said in a statement published ...
Read More »France’s Atos to buy US IT giant Syntel in $3.4bn deal
Bloomberg Atos SE agreed to buy Syntel Inc. for about $3.4 billion in a cash deal that would give the French computer-services company access to large US financial customers including American Express Co. and State Street Corp. Bezons, France-based Atos will pay $41 a share for the US information technology firm, the companies said in a joint statement. The per-share ...
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