News

  Bloomberg The 1 percent may not be popular among protest marchers, but in the U.K. they’re now paying more than a quarter of all income tax. A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies published on Wednesday found that the proportion of total income tax paid by the top centile rose to 27.5 percent in the 2015-16 tax year ...

  Bloomberg Adidas AG raised its full-year profit forecast for the second time in less than three months after first-quarter results beat its own expectations and as consumers spend more ahead of the Euro 2016 soccer tournament. Net income from continuing operations will rise 15 percent to 18 percent this year, more than a prior range of 10 percent to ...

  Bloomberg The outlook for Russia’s earnings from oil exports is improving as the price of a barrel of crude in ruble terms rose to the highest in more than five months. The currency’s 2.8 percent advance this month has lagged a gain of 18 percent in Brent crude, which is used to price Russia’s main export blend. The exchange ...

  Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government reached a deal with automakers to jointly spend 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) on incentives to boost sluggish electric-car sales. Buyers will be able to receive as much as €4,000 in rebates to help offset the higher price of an electric vehicle, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said at a press conference in Berlin. ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, on Wednesday announced its strongest annual financial results to date, with a net profit of US$103 million on total revenues of US$ 9.02 billion. The performance, which marked the airline’s fifth consecutive year of net profitability, also saw earnings before interest and tax, EBIT, of ...

  DUBAI / Emirates Business The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) is set to launch “Customers Happiness Week” event under the slogan “Your Happiness, Our Happiness” from April 28 to May 4. The event is part of the TRA’s efforts to enhance its relation with its strategic partners and promote communication with customers to determine their current needs and renewable desires. ...

  Tokyo / AFP The head of crisis-hit Mitsubishi Motors said on Wednesday that sales in Japan have fallen off a cliff since the company admitted last week that it has been cheating on fuel-efficiency tests. Tetsuro Aikawa, the automaker’s president, revealed that orders have dropped by almost half since the scandal erupted, as the crisis takes a toll on ...

  Sydney / Bloomberg Australian consumer prices fell in January-March for the first time since 2008 during the global financial crisis, data showed on Wednesday, putting pressure on the central bank to cut interest rates and sending the local dollar tumbling. The statistics bureau said the consumer price index (CPI) fell 0.2 percent in the quarter from the previous three ...

  Seoul/ AP Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s second-largest automaker, posted a solid first-quarter net profit on Wednesday on the back of a weaker Korean won and strong demand for its SUVs and motorhomes. Net profit stood at 944.6 billion won ($822.7 million) during the January-March period, up 4.6 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory ...

  Seoul / AFP An extended export slump and weakening domestic consumption saw South Korea’s economic growth slow in the first quarter, despite record low interest rates, the central Bank of Korea said. Asia’s fourth largest economy expanded 0.4 percent in the January-March period from the previous quarter, and 2.7 percent compared to a year earlier.On-quarter growth in the final ...