Bloomberg Norway’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low and signaled it’s prepared to ease policy further to ward off a recession in western Europe’s biggest crude oil producer. The overnight deposit rate was lowered by 25 basis points to 0.50 percent, the Oslo-based central bank said on Thursday. The decision was predicted by 18 of …

Bloomberg As cement sets and hardens, it binds materials together, creating a stronger whole. LafargeHolcim’s first yearly results as a combined company gave little indication that their union has done similar. The Franco-Swiss cement producer, the world’s biggest, booked a 3-billion Swiss franc ($3.1-billion) impairment in the fourth quarter, attributed mostly to Brazil, Russia, Iraq and China. As a consequence, …

The Obama administration is moving towards what could be a dangerous showdown with China over the South China Sea. The confrontation has been building for the past three years, as China has constructed artificial islands off its southern coast and installed missiles and radar in disputed waters, despite US warnings. It could come to a head this spring, when an …