AFP China’s producer prices fell at their slowest rate in nearly two years in July, the government said, a sign of improving conditions in the world’s second largest economy. The producer price index (PPI), which measures the cost of goods at the factory gate, fell 1.7 percent year-on-year last month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, as a ...

  Tokyo / AFP India’s love for fried food could help curb its crude oil imports. The nation of 1.3 billion people can make at least 2 million tons of biodiesel annually by processing used cooking oil from restaurant chains, said Ramakrishna Y.B., the head of an Indian government panel that’s looking at the potential for fuels derived from plants. ...

  TOKYO / AP China’s passenger-vehicle sales accelerated the most in 17 months, as General Motors Co. and Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. boosted deliveries and dealers offering discounts helped clear inventories in the world’s biggest auto market. Retail sales of cars, sport utility and multipurpose vehicles climbed 23 percent to 1.6 million units in July, the biggest monthly percentage gain ...