News

  Bloomberg YPF SA, Argentina’s state-controlled energy firm, named Total SA managing director Ricardo Darre as chief executive officer to lead the country’s biggest company. Darre, the head of the U.S. exploration and production unit since August 2014 at France’s largest oil company, will start July 1, according to an e-mailed statement from Buenos Aires-based YPF. “With the incorporation of ...

  Bloomberg Brazil’s interim government is seeking a market-driven approach for the electricity industry amid waning power demand, growing debt and consecutive losses at the country’s largest power company. The administration of Acting President Michel Temer will scale back heavy-handed policies in the power industry and reduce dependence on state development bank BNDES for financing, said Paulo Pedrosa, executive secretary ...

  Venezuela / AFP Venezuelans facing severe food shortages might have been expected to welcome heavily subsidized bags of rice, milk and other staples — but the controversy didn’t take long to set in. The bags, distributed to poor families every three weeks, represent President Nicolas Maduro’s latest plan to combat the increasingly desperate economic crisis that has taken hold ...

  Beijing / AP China agreed to try to slash excess output of steel, avoid competitive devaluations of its currency and to wind down unprofitable “zombie enterprises,” US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said on Tuesday as the two countries wrapped up annual high-level meetings in Beijing. The commitment to persist with reforms to make China’s economy more balanced included specific steps ...

  Sydney / AP Australia’s central bank held interest rates steady at the all-time low of 1.75 percent on Tuesday following strong growth figures, while keeping an eye on low inflation. The Reserve Bank of Australia cut the official cash rate from 2.0 percent last month to spur the economy, but gave little indication of further easing in a statement ...

Seoul / AFP South Korea has called for car giant Nissan to face criminal charges for allegedly manipulating emissions data on a popular sports utility vehicle, weeks after Seoul slapped the firm with a fine over the issue. The environment ministry called on state prosecutors to probe Nissan Korea after saying tests had shown an emission defeat system on the ...

  Shanghai / Bloomberg China’s cities need about 6.6 trillion yuan ($1 trillion) of green financing over the next five years to reach its pollution-reduction targets, according to a report. Financial markets will need to cover as much as 90 percent of investment funding for clean transportation, energy-efficient buildings and renewable power through 2020, according to the executive summary of ...

  Bloomberg U.K. stocks are posting their best performance in eight years, even as polls are increasingly pointing to a potential exit from the European Union. The weakening of the pound and a surge in miners have helped the FTSE All-Share Index erase its annual loss, making it outrun the Stoxx Europe 600 Index by the most since 2008. British ...

  Bloomberg German industrial production rebounded in April in a sign that Europe’s largest economy is benefiting from a pick-up in investment. Output, adjusted for seasonal swings, rose 0.8 percent from March, when it dropped a revised 1.1 percent, data from the Economy Ministry in Berlin showed on Tuesday. In Spain, industrial production was unchanged in April from the previous ...

  Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc cut spending plans further and promised increased savings following its record purchase of BG Group Plc as it continues to adjust to the slump in oil prices. Europe’s biggest energy company will spend $29 billion this year, it said on Tuesday. That compares with a May forecast for capital expenditure “trending toward” $30 billion, ...