AFP Indonesia’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate on Thursday in a bid to boost sagging growth, given space to act thanks to the Fed’s decision not to raise the cost of borrowing. Bank Indonesia slashed the rate by 25 basis points to five percent, as expected. The bank shifted to using the current, more short-term focused benchmark …

  AFP India may have just spent billions of dollars on hi-tech French fighter jets, but experts say it needs to do a lot more if it is going to face up to an increasingly assertive China. The world’s top defence importer has signed several big-ticket deals as part of a $100-billion upgrade since Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi …

  AFP Japan’s exports tumbled and the country logged a surprise trade deficit in August, data showed, reviving concerns about the economy just before the Bank of Japan wraps up a closely watched meeting. Shipments overseas fell 9.6 percent from a year earlier as a strong yen clouds the country’s trade picture. That left a trade deficit of 18.7 billion …