News

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia announced its budget deficit narrowed in 2017 to below 10 percent of economic output for the first time since the collapse in oil pri- ces, as the kingdom prepared to unveil what is expected to be an expansionary budget for next year. The shortfall dropped to 8.9 percent of gross domestic product from almost 13 percent in ...

Bloomberg Crude lingered near $57 a barrel for a third day as oil workers in Nigeria suspended a strike and repairs to a crucial North Sea pipeline proceeded apace. Futures slipped 0.2 percent in New York, erasing gains from earlier in the session. Managerial workers in Africa’s second-largest crude-producing nation halted their strike and agreed to reopen talks next month. ...

Bloomberg Didi Chuxing, the ride-hailing giant that vanquished Uber Technologies Inc. in China, is turning to franchising in Taiwan as it expands its business beyond the mainland. Didi plans to only operate as a taxi hailing platform in Taiwan and is seeking to work with existing drivers that it’s recruiting through its Facebook page. The recruitment is being done by ...

Bloomberg Ride-hailing startup Ola is buying Foodpanda’s Indian operations and will invest $200 million in the business, taking its battle with Uber Technologies Inc. into meals-on-demand. ANI Technologies Pvt’s Ola will acquire Delivery Hero AG’s local Foodpanda business in return for Ola stock, it said in a statement. The move coincides with the aggressive expansion of UberEATS in the country, ...

Bloomberg Tata Steel Ltd. plans to raise as much as $2 billion in a rights offer to help add capacity in India, where demand for the alloy is forecast to triple in over a decade. The money will be used to build and buy mills as well as to repay debt, the company said an exchange filing on Tuesday. The ...

Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp. is betting that technology can overhaul the home insurance industry by leading a $120 million round in Lemonade Inc. The New York-based startup, which uses artificial intelligence and bots to minimise paperwork and speed up the claims process for renters and homeowners, had raised $60 million before the announcement. Previous backers included General Catalyst, Alphabet Inc.’s ...

Bloomberg Uber Technologies Inc. is set to reach the end of the road in a legal battle over a question that’s reached the European Union’s top court—is the world’s most valuable startup a taxi company or not? Uber has argued that it’s a technology platform connecting passengers with independent drivers, not a transportation company subject to the same rules as ...

Bloomberg British labour-cost pressures appear to be building, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics. The cost of employing someone for an hour of work rose 3 percent in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, the fastest pace since the April-June period in 2016, the ONS said on Tuesday. From the previous quarter, labor ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc.’s messaging service WhatsApp was given a one-month ultimatum by one of Europe’s strictest privacy watchdogs, facing an order to stop sharing user data with its parent without getting the necessary consent. France’s data protection authority CNIL gave a sharp warning to WhatsApp by issuing a formal notice, criticising it for “insufficiently” cooperating. The decision comes a year ...

Bloomberg German business confidence unexpectedly weakened in December, while remaining close to its record, in a sign of nerves over the outlook for Europe’s largest economy. The Ifo Institute’s gauge of business sentiment declined to 117.2 from a revised 117.6 the previous month. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted a reading of 117.5, matching November’s original number. Ifo’s gauge remains near ...