Budgets can be austere things, as Australia’s was – or tried to be — in 2014. They can also be optimistic, about delivering surpluses or in this government’s case “jobs and growth.” Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his Treasurer Scott Morrison have delivered an optimistic budget. Or at least they delivered it optimistically, with Turnbull waxing lyrically if …

  Catherine Putz SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Ahead of the planned May 12 inauguration of the CASA-1000 project, the World Bank, one of the project’s main financiers, published a Q&A to try and provide answers to sustained criticisms of the project. The $1.17 billion CASA-1000 project aims to supply electricity from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan via a …

  BLOOMBERG U.S. stocks slipped after the biggest gain in two months, as global equities continued to churn just below multiyear highs amid corporate results and persistent signs that worldwide growth remains lackluster. Metals advanced as the dollar slipped. The S&P 500 Index retreated for the first time in four days, while European equities slid from a one-week high. Industrial …