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TUNIS / Reuters Tunisia will raise VAT and other taxes and lay off about 3,000 public sector workers next year in a bid to cut the budget deficit, an economic adviser to the prime minister said. Tunisia will also seek to raise 7.4 billion Tunisian dinars ($3 billion) from foreign loans including 1.4 billion dinars from the sale of bonds, ...

Bloomberg The latest battle for Iraq’s future is unfolding around the country’s oldest oil field. Federal government troops pushed back forces from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region with a rapid thrust into Kirkuk province in northern Iraq, breaking a stand-off over the long-disputed area. Baghdad wants to reassert control of the area’s oil deposits from Kurdish fighters, who seized the territory ...

Bloomberg Egypt plans to renew a $2 billion financing deal with international banks while also developing alternative sources of funding such as issuing dollar-denominated Eurobonds, Finance Minister Amr El-Garhy said. The repurchase transaction, which international banks offered to increase to $5 billion upon its extension, will remain unchanged in size and probably in duration, El-Garhy said, adding the final details ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s market for initial public offerings is heading for its worst year since 2012 as a combined $20 billion of megadeals are being pushed to next year. State-owned China Tower Corp. was slated to be one of this year’s biggest deals, with a fundraising goal of as much as $10 billion, according to people with knowledge of the ...

Bloomberg Indonesia will turn to private investors for the hundreds of billions of dollars in investment needed to develop the archipelago’s infrastructure and natural resources, President Joko Widodo said, brushing off claims he was increasingly becoming an economic nationalist. All major projects will be offered to the private sector, Widodo, also known as Jokowi, told Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin in ...

Bloomberg India is planning to enhance its meteorological forecasting capability to more accurately predict severe weather in a localised manner. The Ministry of Earth Sciences will send a proposal to the government for spending $308 million in five years to install more radars, supercomputers and special observatories, said M. Rajeevan, secretary of the ministry. The modernisation programme will help the ...

Bloomberg Palm oil imports by India, the world’s biggest buyer, climbed for an eighth straight month in September as lower international prices prompted traders and refiners to buy more to meet festival demand. Imports advanced 20.4 percent to 931,637 metric tons in September from a year earlier, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India said. Total vegetable oil purchases, including sunflower ...

­­­­­­­­­­­Bloomberg The US Supreme Court agreed to decide whether law enforcement officials conducting a criminal investigation can demand data held overseas by Microsoft Corp. and other tech companies in a high-stakes clash over digital privacy. The justices will review a federal appeals ruling that the Trump administration says has become a major obstacle in criminal probes. Already, Google and Yahoo, ...

Bloomberg The UK needs to clarify its Brexit plans to avoid undermining consumer confidence as talks on leaving the European Union run into roadblocks, according to one of Japan’s biggest food companies. Yakult Honsha Co., which sells 190,000 bottles of its probiotic, yogurt-like drink in the UK daily, intends to stay in the country regardless of the outcome of the ...

Bloomberg UK inflation climbed to its highest rate in more than five years in September, boosted by the cost of food and transport. Consumer prices rose 3 percent from a year earlier, the fastest pace since April 2012 and up from 2.9 percent in August, the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday in London. The increase intensifies the squeeze ...