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Bloomberg Malaysia intensified its efforts to rein in spending by reducing the cost of an almost $14-billion mass-rapid transit project, as Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad reviews programs he says his predecessor kicked off under unfair terms. The Finance Ministry shaved 5.22 billion ringgit ($1.3 billion) from the above-ground portion of the nation’s MRT2 project, accepting a new construction tender by ...

Bloomberg China’s foreign-currency holdings fell in September, as heightened trade tensions with the US fueled concerns of capital outflow and further yuan depreciation. Reserves declined by $22.69 billion to $3.087 trillion in September, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on Sunday. That compares with $3.110 trillion the previous month and the median estimate of $3.105 trillion in a Bloomberg ...

Bloomberg Indonesia stands ready to respond to global risks brought about by an intensifying trade war and rising US interest rates that have driven the nation’s currency to a two-decade low, officials said. The government will coordinate its policy response with the central bank and the financial services authority, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told reporters in Jakarta. Bank Indonesia ...

Bloomberg Toyota Motor Corp. is recalling more than 2 million of its iconic Prius hybrids globally on the risk that a software malfunction could end in a crash. Of a total of about 2.43 million vehicles affected, 94 percent are the Prius and its derivatives, with the hybrid version of the Auris compact hatchback making up the remainder, Toyota spokesman ...

Bloomberg Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS) is missing more debt obligations, even as the Indian government pledged to prevent further defaults, underscoring the challenges its new board faces in fixing the firm’s mounting debt problems. IL&FS failed to service principal and interest on loans from banks, inter-corporate deposit and commercial papers totaling Rs 33.9 crore due for the ...

Bloomberg Carmakers are discovering there are limits when it comes to influencing European Union climate policy. A decade after the EU crafted its first caps on carbon dioxide from autos by heeding manufacturers’ calls to go easy, the bloc will likely ignore similar pleas regarding the next set of proposed reduction targets. Slated for 2025 and 2030, these limits will ...

Bloomberg The UK’s painful pay squeeze in the aftermath of the financial crisis helped save 800,000 jobs, according to new research. A report published by the Resolution Foundation showed that real average earnings in the UK fell by about 7 percent between 2009 and 2014, the equivalent of a 1 billion-pound ($1.3 billion) weekly wage loss. Still, that pain saved ...

Bloomberg European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called on Italy to redouble its fiscal efforts to avoid deviating from the goals agreed to with Brussels, saying the government in Rome has already enjoyed concessions on spending. The commission “has to look out for the observation of the rules, and in the case of Italy we have introduced lines of flexibility in ...

Bloomberg Verizon Communications Inc. is offering buyout packages to as many as 44,000 management employees as part of a cost-cutting drive, potentially eliminating more than a fourth of its workforce. The offer, which excludes executives in sales or crucial company roles, is part of a four-year, $10 billion cost-reduction program that Chairman Lowell McAdam put in place last year. A ...

Bloomberg The US boom won’t be enough to stop the rest of the world economy from slowing. Finance ministers and central bankers head to Indonesia next week for the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting, with the lender signalling it will cut its global growth forecasts for the first time in two years after the best upswing since 2011. That’s despite ...