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  Bloomberg Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said the UK economy will grow more slowly than previously forecast in 2017 and the government will need to borrow more over the next five years, as he laid out the framework for a post-Brexit Britain. Outlining his first Autumn Statement to Parliament on Wednesday, five months to the day after Britain ...

  Bloomberg Filings for unemployment benefits in the U.S. rebounded last week from a four-decade low while remaining consistent with a firm labor market. Jobless claims rose by 18,000 to 251,000 in the period ended Nov. 19, a Labor Department report showed Wednesday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for 250,000 applications. In the previous week that included ...

  Brussels / AFP European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker unveiled plans on Wednesday to tighten the code of conduct for former officials after a row over his predecessor Jose Manuel Barroso’s role with Goldman Sachs. The “cooling-off” period during which they must inform Brussels if they take a new job would be extended from 18 months to three years for ...

  Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Germans against turning to economic isolationism, saying she’s “not happy” about the possible collapse of the Trans-Pacific Partnership after US President-elect Donald Trump said he’ll withdraw from the trade accord. Fresh from announcing she’ll seek a fourth term in next year’s German election, Merkel used a speech to parliament in Berlin to acknowledge voters’ ...

  Bloomberg Euro-area economic growth accelerated to its fastest pace this year as growing order books prompted companies to add more workers and raise prices. A Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing and services rose to 54.1 in November from 53.3 a month earlier, IHS Markit said on Wednesday. That’s the strongest level in 11 months and above the 50 mark ...

  AFP The uncertainty caused by Brexit and Donald Trump’s election will help spur talks on a long-stalled free trade accord between the EU and South American trade block Mercosur, Brazil’s foreign minister said Wednesday. “I think the possibilities of the Mercosur negotiations have a direct relationship with international insecurity,” Jose Serra told a news conference in Madrid when asked ...

  KHOBAR / Reuters Saudi Arabia plans to more than triple the contribution of its mining industry to national wealth as measured by GDP by 2030, the energy minister said. The kingdom is finalising a mining strategy aimed at raising annual mining revenues from 64 billion riyals ($17.07 billion) to 240 billion riyals by 2030, Khalid Al Falih told reporters ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabian construction firm Abdullah Abdul Mohsin al-Khodari and Sons said on Tuesday that projects worth 362.2 million riyals ($97 million) had been delayed due to factors ranging from clients’ funding shortages to slow visa issuance. The pace of construction in Saudi Arabia has cooled in the past two years as lower oil prices stall project ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Aluminium Bahrain has approached banks for a $750 million loan towards the financing of its Line 6 expansion project, sources said. Alba will become the world’s largest single aluminium smelter complex, boosting its annual output by 540,000 tonnes to 1.5 million tonnes per year by adding the sixth “potline”, used in producing the metal from raw ...

  CAIRO / Reuters Pharmacies across Egypt are running short of medicines, some of them life-savers, as a plunge in the value of the Egyptian pound coupled with strict government price caps has made scores of products unprofitable to produce or import. The shortages include some cancer treatments as well as basic items like insulin, tetanus shots and contraceptive pills. ...