Panama City / AFP Japan on Wednesday agreed to finance a $2.6 billion monorail Panama intends to have built by 2022 as an extension of its young metro system, the Panamanian government said. “This financing Japan is giving us today is recognition of the solidity and credibility of Panama,” a statement quoted President Juan Carlos Varela saying during a ...

  New Delhi / Bloomberg The returns for overseas investors in India’s ambitious 100-gigawatt solar programme are about to get a big leg-up. And no, New Delhi won’t be paying the producers much more than the rock-bottom tariff of 4.34 rupees (7 cents) per kilowatt-hour. So where will the extra profit come from? Speaking in London, Indian Power Minister Piyush ...

    Bloomberg U.K. retail sales posted their biggest monthly decline in more than two years in March as Britons bought less of everything from food to clothing. The volume of sales excluding auto fuel fell 1.6 percent from February, the most since January 2014. Total sales dropped 1.3 percent. Both far exceeded the modest declines forecast in a Bloomberg ...

  Bloomberg German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble cast doubt on whether Greece’s bailout will succeed, while citing progress on the more immediate task of concluding a review of Greek compliance with the aid program that’s needed to unlock more funds. “We can make it, I’m not that pessimistic, we’ve made progress,” Schaeuble said during a panel discussion in Berlin late ...

Bloomberg Swiss watch exports posted the biggest quarterly drop since 2009 as the industry faces declining demand in all its main markets. Shipments dropped 8.9 percent in the first quarter, adjusted for working days, according to data from Switzerland’s customs office. Exports declined 16 percent in March to 1.5 billion francs ($1.5 billion), the lowest level for that month in ...

  Bloomberg Sweden’s central bank will buy more bonds to drive down longer yields as policy makers try to fight currency gains that threaten to undermine their efforts to rekindle inflation. The Riksbank kept its benchmark repo rate at minus 0.5 percent, it said on Thursday. The decision was expected by all 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. It will add ...

  Bloomberg Pension funds, a key emerging investor in renewable energy projects, are likely to lose interest in new deals in the U.K. if voters opt to leave the bloc, said the head of PensionDanmark A/S. Uncertainty that would be caused by a U.K. decision to leave the EU following its June 23 referendum would increase the risk profile of ...

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG has agreed to set aside at least $10 billion to resolve civil claims by the U.S. government and lawsuits by American car owners over diesel vehicles rigged to cheat pollution controls, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. The parties reached the accord ahead of a Thursday deadline set by a federal judge for ...

Bloomberg Soybeans extended a rally above $10 a bushel, the highest price since July, and corn traded near $4 a bushel as unfavourable weather in South America and prospects for improved demand for U.S. supplies bolstered agriculture markets. Dryness in Brazil is causing conditions to deteriorate for its second corn crop, and the country suspended import tariffs for the next ...

  Bloomberg Shareholders of oil-rig venture Sete Brasil Participacoes SA agreed to a plan to file for bankruptcy protection after its single client failed to present a viable book order. A Sete Brasil official confirmed that investors are backing the plan and declined to elaborate. Shareholders had set that day as a deadline for Petroleo Brasileiro SA to propose a ...