Bloomberg India’s cash machines are running dry, leaving policy makers and bankers scrambling to assuage the public and prevent perception about the nation’s fraud-hit financial system from worsening. As the banknote shortage spread across several states, the government finally addressed the issue in a statement, where it cited an “unusual spurt in demand” for cash. The Finance Ministry rolled out ...

Bloomberg Germany’s public-sector workers and employers have agreed on a three-step series of wage hikes, providing the European Central Bank with fresh evidence of inflation-boosting pay deals and averting the threat of more disruptive strikes. Wages for 2.3 million workers in federal and local governments will rise by an annual 3.19 percent on average retroactive to March, by another 3.09 ...

Bloomberg Investors are losing faith in the Bank of England delivering two interest-rate increases this year as UK economic data does little to suggest a full-blown tightening cycle is needed. While a hike in May is still almost fully priced in by markets, the chances of a second in 2018 fell further on Wednesday after inflation slowed to the weakest ...

Bloomberg China’s banks stand to make higher profits from the government’s move to fine-tune monetary policy by slashing their reserve requirements. Banking shares jumped. The resulting drop in funding costs will boost the net interest margin of listed Chinese banks by 0.9 basis point and lift their profits by 0.6 percent, according to analysts at China International Capital Corp. Industrial ...

Bloomberg The franc may be close to the Swiss National Bank’s previous currency ceiling, but that doesn’t mean investors should expect an interest rate hike too soon. A monthly survey of economists shows they anticipate the Swiss central bank will keep its deposit rate at minus 0.75 percent the first nine months of 2019, before raising it by 25 basis ...

Bloomberg Inflation is showing signs of taking root in Japan. With price gains halfway to the Bank of Japan’s 2 percent target, domestic demand is picking up after years in which external factors such as energy prices did most of the work. As the economy continues to grow, this could open the door for the central bank to start adjusting ...

Bloomberg Salil Parekh didn’t get much time to settle in after taking over the helm of Infosys Ltd. Since becoming chief executive officer in January, the 53-year-old has crisscrossed three continents to meet with customers and employees to get his hands around the challenges facing India’s iconic tech-services giant. He talked with 48 clients in his first three months — ...

Bloomberg IHH Healthcare Bhd. has asked Fortis Healthcare Ltd. for three weeks to complete due diligence ahead of making a potential binding offer, people with knowledge of the matter said, as the takeover battle for India’s second-largest hospital chain escalates. IHH, Asia’s most valuable hospital operator, sent a letter to Fortis’s board on April 16 with the due diligence request ...

Bloomberg China’s decision to stop putting foreign carmakers in bed with local partners is unlikely to prompt a major unwind anytime time soon. But it dangles the lucrative draw of future wholly-owned future factories. Such a move would benefit new competitors like Tesla Inc. and late China-arrivals like Fiat Chrysler Automobiles with no or limited joint-venture production in China. Luxury ...

Bloomberg China’s home prices rose at the fastest pace in three months in March, fuelled by gains in smaller cities, even as the government maintained a two-year campaign to cool the housing market. New-home prices across 70 cities gained 0.42 percent from a month earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics. That compared ...