Bloomberg Slovakia took a step closer toward early general elections aimed at ending a year-long political deadlock that triggered the government’s collapse last month. The euro area country of 5.4 million people will probably hold the ballot on Sept. 30, interim Prime Minister Eduard Heger said, after negotiations with his former ruling partners in Bratislava on Sunday evening. Heger’s …

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) should continue with half-point interest-rate increases at the next two meetings and the time to slow the pace of hikes is “still far away,” according to Governing Council member Klaas Knot. “We made a step down in December from 75 to 50 basis points — that will be the pace for a multiple …

Bloomberg Axis Bank Ltd.’s quarterly profit jumped 62% and topped estimates amid robust growth in lending and improved margins. Net income climbed to 58.5 billion rupees ($719 million) in the third quarter, compared with 36.1 billion rupees a year ago, according to a statement on Monday. That beat the average estimate of 53.4 billion rupees by analysts in a Bloomberg …