Bloomberg Russia is acting on a pledge by President Vladimir Putin to shrink the role of dollar in international trade as tensions sour between Washington and Moscow. The shift is part of a strategy to “de-dollarize” the Russian economy and lower its vulnerability to the ongoing threat of US sanctions. But while the central bank was able to quickly dump ...

Bloomberg Economic activity in the euro area’s private sector weakened further as still-solid services couldn’t make up for rapidly deteriorating manufacturing. A composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 51.5 in July, with goods output falling for a sixth months and at the greatest extent since 2013. “The service sector continued to sustain the expansion of the overall euro-zone economy ...

Bloomberg As China turns its back on American ethanol in a lingering trade spat, Brazil is considering opening its doors to US biofuel. Brazilian authorities are debating whether to yield to Washington’s request to lift ethanol-import duties as a way of facilitating talks for a bilateral trade deal with the US. A broad trade accord would benefit many Brazilian products ...