News

  Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of Australia frequently seeks feedback on the health of the economy. It might want to call the debt counselors soon. Homeowners, consumers and property investors around Australia are making more calls to financial helplines as three warning signs back up the spike in demand: mortgage arrears are creeping up, lenders’ bad debt provisions have increased ...

  Bloomberg Tata Steel Ltd. swung to a profit in the third quarter, the first gain in five periods, boosted by a recovery in product prices and higher production. Group net profit was 2.3 billion rupees ($34 million) in the three months to December 31, from a loss of 27.5 billion rupees a year earlier, according to a statement from ...

  Bloomberg Lotte Group said the Chinese government ordered the halt of the conglomerate’s 3 trillion won ($2.6 billion) theme-park project in northeastern China, in the group’s latest setback in a country that’s stepping up economic retaliation against South Korea for pushing ahead with the deployment of a US missile shield. The government order to suspend the development in Shenyang ...

  Bloomberg Running a wholesale grocery shop in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, 43-year-old Khan used to write as many as 40 checks a month to buy goods from sugar to Unilever NV tea bags. That changed when authorities, in a bid to clamp down on widespread tax avoidance, started charging a levy on every bank transaction above ...

  Bloomberg Remittances from Egyptians working abroad are surging and foreigners bought more than $250 million in local assets during the beginning of the week, further signs of growing confidence in the nation’s economy after it floated the currency and secured a $12 billion IMF loan. Expatriate workers sent home $4.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016, up 12 ...

  Reuters Pressure on Qatar’s state finances is easing because of higher oil prices and the government may not need to issue an international bond this year, but it is still seeking ways to save money, finance minister Ali Sherif al-Emadi said. “We may not issue a bond this year given where oil prices are – right now we are ...

  Bloomberg Rio Tinto Group is delivering on a promise to reward investors as it emerges from an industry-wide downturn by paying out a bigger-than-expected dividend and announcing a surprise $500 million share buyback. Last year’s 81 percent surge in iron ore prices helped the world’s second-biggest mining company report its first gain in annual profit since 2013, exceeding analysts’ ...

  Bloomberg Film director and lawmaker David Puttnam is proposing measures in the UK’s House of Lords aimed at frustrating Rupert Murdoch’s 11.7 billion-pound ($14.6 billion) plan to merge his US media company, 21st Century Fox Inc., with European pay-television broadcaster Sky Plc. The amendments to the proposed Digital Economy Bill would subject media acquirers to a so-called fit-and-proper test ...

  Bloomberg The controversial Dakota Access pipeline is set to gain the final go-ahead for completion after President Donald Trump asked for a speedy approval. The US Army said it will grant Energy Transfer Partners LP the easement it needs to finish the line that will ship almost half a million barrels of crude a day from North Dakota’s shale ...

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. has hired Timothy D. Twerdahl, the former head of Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire TV unit, as a vice president in charge of Apple TV product marketing and shifted the executive who previously held the job to a spot negotiating media content deals. The moves suggest a renewed focus on the Apple TV and on providing more content ...