News

  Bloomberg Indian Oil Corp. is scaling up an expansion plan for its biggest refinery in northern India at a cost of 150 billion rupees ($2.3 billion), as it races to meet demand in one of the world’s fastest-growing crude consumers. India’s top refiner will expand its Panipat refinery to 25 million metric tons a year (500,000 barrels a day) ...

  Beijing / AFP China’s dependence on debt is growing at a “dangerous pace” and it must act to head off a brewing crisis, the IMF warned on Tuesday. The International Monetary Fund also said the country’s leaders should kick on with vital reforms or risk a painful correction in the world’s number two economy, adding that Beijing’s “unsustainably high” ...

  Seoul / AFP The chairman of South Korea’s Hanjin Group on Tuesday apologised for the “cargo chaos” caused by the collapse of its shipping unit, but insisted the company could, and should, be salvaged. Hanjin Shipping, the world’s seventh largest shipping company, is seeking bankruptcy protection at home and in the US after creditors rejected its latest plan to ...

  Tokyo/ AFP Business confidence among Japan’s largest manufacturers is at its lowest since Tokyo introduced measures to kick-start the struggling economy more than three years ago, a central bank survey showed in a report. The Bank of Japan’s closely watched Tankan report comes after data showing weak growth in the second quarter and as soft inflation and spending figures ...

  Brussels / AFP The IMF raised its growth forecast for the eurozone on Tuesday, but warned of uncertainty due to the still unknown consequences of Brexit and damage caused by low inflation. The IMF edged up the growth forecast for the 19 nation currency bloc to 1.7 percent in 2016, from an earlier 1.6 percent, citing low oil prices ...

  Bloomberg Ericsson AB plans to cut 3,000 jobs in Sweden, a fifth of the workforce in its home country, as it curbs production to cope with shifting technology and stagnant demand for wireless-network equipment. The company will reduce manufacturing in the towns of Boraas and Kumla — a move it signaled last month— as it turns its focus to ...

  Strasbourg / AFP The European Parliament will vote on its “negotiating lines” for Britain’s exit from the EU after London triggers the divorce process next year, its Brexit pointman said on Tuesday. Former Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt welcomed Prime Minister Theresa May’s announcement at the weekend that Britain will start negotiations by the end of March but said there ...

  Rio de Janeiro / AFP The sweeping victory of centrist and right-wing parties in municipal elections on Sunday will give Brazil’s new President Michel Temer at least a temporary boost as he pushes through austerity reforms, analysts said. The once-dominant leftist Workers’ Party was routed in the nationwide polls, confirming Brazil’s shift to the right in the wake of ...

  Ottawa / AFP Canada will impose a national minimum carbon price in 2018 in order to meet its Paris accord commitment to slash greenhouse gas emissions, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. “All Canadian jurisdictions will put a price on carbon pollution by 2018… To get there, the government will set a floor price for carbon pollution,” he said in ...

  Bloomberg It’s Italy’s turn to worry the bond market. Two months before a referendum on reducing the power of the Senate, the country now pays the most to borrow compared with Spain since 2014 based on government bond yields. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said previously he would quit if he lost the vote, making it effectively a judgment on ...