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  KUALA LUMPUR / Bloomberg Malaysia’s ringgit slumped by the most in eight months after Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said a US interest-rate increase in June was “a real option.” The comments sparked a surge in the greenback, with the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rising from the lowest level in a year. Brent crude hovered around ...

  Jakarta / AFP Indonesia’s growth rate was slower than forecast in the first quarter of 2016, official data showed on Wednesday, in a blow to President Joko Widodo’s efforts to boost Southeast Asia’s top economy. The G20 economy grew 4.92 percent year-on-year from January to March, the official statistics agency said. This was slightly below economists’ forecasts and compared ...

  Beijing / The Diplomat The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is in the process of upgrading a number of older classes of surface warships with new anti-ship missiles, missile defense systems, and cannons capable of firing precision-guided ammunition, Popular Science reports. Based on photographic evidence, it appears that the 6,100-ton Type 051B Luhai-class destroyer Shenzhen, commissioned in 1998, is ...

KUALA LUMPUR / Bloomberg Australia’s current government will never sell its largest cattle empire to foreigners, the treasurer said on Wednesday after blocking a takeover by a Chinese-led consortium. Chinese-based Dakang Australia Holdings on Tuesday withdrew its application to buy an 80 percent stake in Australia’s largest private landholding, S. Kidman & Co. Ltd., after Treasurer Scott Morrison last week ...

Bloomberg Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said he believes British voters will “do the sensible thing” and vote to stay in the European Union in next month’s referendum. “If we were to leave, it would put a level of economic insecurity into the ordinary family household that I think most people would think is a foolish risk to take,” ...

  Bloomberg The ruble weakened the most among currencies worldwide, catching up with the biggest decline in oil in more than a month, as Russian markets reopened following a two-day holiday. The currency slid 2.7 percent to 66.37 per dollar in Moscow, the biggest fall since Feb. 2. That pared its gains in 2016 to 10.8 percent, the most in ...

  Bloomberg In Portugal, where pessimism has become a national characteristic, the Socialist government may be too optimistic about the economic outlook. Finance Minister Mario Centeno predicts expansion of 1.8 percent this year and next and an acceleration to 2.1 percent in 2020 — which would be the fastest in a decade. That makes the government an outlier, with a ...

  Bloomberg Daimler AG Mercedes-Benz is investing about €500 million ($574 million) to build an engine plant in Poland as the luxury-car brand expands to overtake rival BMW. The factory in Jawor in Poland’s southwest will be Daimler’s second engine plant outside Germany. The facility, with a workforce of several hundred employees in its initial phase, will make four-cylinder gasoline ...

  Bloomberg Low interest rates are helping to reduce euro-area public debt, but rigorous enforcement of European Union fiscal rules is also needed to bring the burden down by a “sizable” amount, the European Central Bank said. Since the end of the financial crisis, euro-area countries have struggled to unwind a debt ratio that stood at around 93 percent of ...

  Bloomberg The U.S. may be the lone bright spot in an otherwise sluggish global economy as American consumers continue to buy expensive new vehicles at record levels. The U.S. industry sold 1.51 million cars and light trucks in April, according to researcher Autodata Corp. That broke an 11-year-old record, according to Edmunds.com. Sales skewed toward more expensive sport utility ...