Bloomberg Soaring gasoline prices are fanning inflation and causing a headache for governments and central banks worldwide. In countries with elections coming up, they’re an extra headwind for the incumbents. While the US mid-terms in November are the prime example of fuel prices feeding into the political sphere, upcoming votes in Asia may also be affected. Voting is already ...

  Bloomberg Almost a year after China’s property-market debt squeeze sparked the first in a wave of defaults by developers, the industry is fighting for survival. Home sales continue to plunge and elevated borrowing costs mean offshore refinancing is off the table for many developers. Global agencies are pulling their ratings on property bonds, while a string of auditor resignations ...

  Bloomberg China’s provincial governments are bracing for a tough year, predicting income growth from taxes will slow and land sale revenue will fall, putting them under severe fiscal pressure as they try to spend more to support a faltering economy. Some local authorities are predicting their general revenue this year will be significantly weaker than an expected national economic ...

Bloomberg The Kremlin said there are “no concrete plans” for a summit between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, throwing into question the fate of a French proposal that seemed to offer fresh hope for averting an alleged Russian plan to attack Ukraine. US officials said the meeting, proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron, would occur only ...

Bloomberg Former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is scheduled to travel to Taiwan next month, one of the most senior US dignitaries to visit the democratically ruled island in recent years. Pompeo has accepted an invitation from the Taipei-based Prospect Foundation, the group’s president, Lai I-chung, said. The former top US diplomat and potential Republican presidential contender will visit Taiwan ...

  Bloomberg Slovenia’s premier moved to block a controversial deal that would hand a large chunk of the country’s biggest tourism group to a buyer with ties to the family of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Prime Minister Janez Jansa’s cabinet approved a 41.6 million-euro ($47.2 million) boost to the capital of the country’s Sovereign Holding, allowing it to exercise ...

  Bloomberg UK trade unions are challenging plans by Boris Johnson to end Covid-19 regulations in England, saying the prime minister should put public health first. The Trades Union Congress (TUC), an umbrella group for British unions representing more than 5.5 million people, said that the government should first commit to improving sick pay and supporting people with weakened immune ...

Bloomberg Germany spent about 42 billion euros ($48 billion) on a program to secure jobs threatened by the coronavirus pandemic. A government program to pay most of an employee’s wages when they can’t work because of operational issues like lockdowns was worth the cost, Germany’s Labor Minister Hubertus Heil said in an interview with Tagespiegel. “The alternative — namely allowing ...

  Bloomberg US retail sales rebounded by more than forecast with the biggest gain since March, as Americans kept spending through a Covid-19 spike and hot inflation to help drive the economic recovery. The value of overall purchases rise 3.8% in January after a downwardly revised 2.5% drop in the prior month, Commerce Department figures showed. The median estimate in ...

  Bloomberg Norway’s economy expanded faster than expected at the end of last year, cementing the outlook for a string of interest rate hikes by Norges Bank from next month. Mainland gross domestic product, which adjusts for the oil-rich nation’s offshore industry, grows 1.4% in fourth quarter from previous three months, the statistics office said. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg and ...