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  Bangkok / Bloomberg Thailand’s economy grew more than analysts estimated in the first quarter as the military government’s spending helped counter weak local demand and exports. Gross domestic product expanded 3.2 percent in the three months through March from a year earlier, the National Economic and Social Development Board said in Bangkok Monday. That compares with the 2.8 percent ...

  Tokyo / AFP The yen slipped on Monday on speculation Tokyo will postpone a sales tax rise to avoid denting Japan’s already fragile economy, while a lacklustre string of Chinese data took a bite out of emerging currencies. Japan’s leading Nikkei business daily said at the weekend that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had told officials he wants to delay ...

  Beijing / Bloomberg China’s record daily output in April bodes ill for an embattled global steel industry already reeling from a deluge of exports from the world’s top producer. Crude steel output over the month rose 0.5 percent to 69.42 million metric tons from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The gains came after mills ramped ...

  Bloomberg Britain’s biggest business lobby cut its growth forecasts for the U.K. economy and said the referendum on European Union membership has put a “dark cloud of uncertainty” over the outlook. The warning on Monday from the Confederation of British Industry follows an intense week of back and forth between both sides of the debate before the June 23 ...

  Bloomberg While the International Monetary Fund has warned that Britain quitting the European Union would be a risk to global financial stability, one of the asset classes most vulnerable to the shock isn’t hearing the alarms, according to Allianz Global Investor’s sterling fund manager. Peripheral euro-area government bonds are underpricing the risks of a Brexit, said Mike Riddell, the ...

  Bloomberg The gloom is clearing over Ukraine’s beleaguered consumers. Faced with a war on the border with Russia and a devaluation that sent inflation shooting past 60 percent, crumbling domestic demand kept the economy shrinking for eight straight quarters on an annual basis. A spending revival helped reverse the slump in the first three months of the year, according ...

  London / AFP French oil and gas company Total officially launched a project off Britain’s remote Shetland Islands on Monday, hailed by London as a “vote of confidence” in the flagging Scottish North Sea oil and gas industry. The Laggan-Tormore fields are located 600 metres (1,970 feet) under water off Britain’s northernmost outpost. They began production on February 7 ...

  Bloomberg Royal Philips NV is seeking to raise as much as €970 million ($1.1 billion) from the initial public offering of a 25 percent stake in its lighting unit in Amsterdam after a private sale process didn’t result in a deal. Philips is planning to sell 37.5 million shares at a range of between €18.50 and €22.50 per share, ...

  Bloomberg Russian assets, which are among the most volatile in the world, are bringing hedge fund managers the best returns in emerging markets. Funds with a geographical focus on the country have gained an average 29 percent since the start of 2015, more than any others geared toward major developing nations, according to industry tracker eVestment. That’s 8 times ...

  Bloomberg Oil climbed to a six-month high as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the market moved into a deficit earlier than expected due to disruptions in Nigeria and higher demand. Futures rose as much as 2.1 percent in New York. The shift to a supply deficit this month happened one quarter earlier than forecast, Goldman Sachs said in a ...