Bloomberg The pound is gathering supporters. One month ago, the U.K. currency was seen ending June at $1.42, according to the median of analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey. That forecast has now risen to $1.45, the highest in almost four months, even as the crucial June 23 vote that will decide the fate of Britain’s membership in the ...

  BARCELONA / AP With sunny days getting longer and lazier, sparkling beaches warming up and terrorism fears driving customers away from other Mediterranean destinations, Spain and Portugal are reaping an economic bonanza from tourism. While most in the cash-strapped nations are welcoming the influx, some locals have been exasperated by the crowds of tourists. In the first two months of ...

  Bloomberg   Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen threw her support behind a growing consensus at the central bank in favor of another interest rate increase soon, while steering clear of specifying the timing of such a move. “It’s appropriate — and I’ve said this in the past — for the Fed to gradually and cautiously increase our overnight interest ...

  Bloomberg Treasuries traders who delayed holiday getaway plans on Friday took away a clear message from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen — a mid-year interest-rate hike may be on the way. Yellen’s remark that the Fed will raise rates “probably in the coming months” drove benchmark two-year note yields higher for a third consecutive week. The comments at an ...

  Bloomberg Argentine President Mauricio Macri announced an amnesty on an estimated $500 billion of unregistered funds stashed abroad to pay pensioners and help fund a multi-billion dollar infrastructure program. The funds will pay a tax of zero percent to 15 percent depending on the amount and when they are brought back into the country, the government said in a ...

  Bloomberg Jawbone Inc. is set to be a much smaller company, according to reports that it’s ending production of its fitness trackers and seeking buyers for its speaker business. The closely held company has put its speaker business up for sale, Fortune said, citing anonymous sources, in a report on its website. Later, Tech Insider reported that Jawbone has ...

  Bloomberg Brazil’s real extended its worst week since December and stocks fell as speculation the country’s political crisis will escalate dimmed expectations that Acting President Michel Temer will be able to restore confidence in Latin America’s biggest economy. The real led losses among the world’s major currencies this week after recordings released by newspapers suggested that Temer’s PMDB party ...

  Ironic as it may seem considering his campaign platform, investors have welcomed the eight-point economic agenda of the incoming president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, in which he vowed to continue and maintain the current macroeconomic policies of the outgoing government. This is, by no means, a marked shift from his campaign promise, “Change is Coming,” under which he ...

Dmitry Filippov SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS On May 6, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held an informal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the subtropical Russian city of Sochi. The three-hour talks concluded with both sides agreeing to streamline the negotiation process aimed at resolving their territorial dispute and concluding a peace treaty based on an undisclosed “new concept.” ...

Perhaps the biggest reason Europe hasn’t produced digital economy giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook or Netflix is that there’s no such thing as “Europe.” Starting out in Sweden, France or Germany, a company is not European — it’s Swedish, French or German. Tax regulations, postal tariffs, financial systems, copyright, labeling and data protection rules — nothing is harmonized. Failing to ...