Bloomberg Sri Lanka cut interest rates for a second time this year, a day after Indonesia did the same, as central banks in the region move to cushion their economies against a global slowdown and trade tensions. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka lowered its benchmark standing lending facility rate to 8% from 8.5%, in line with the forecasts of …

Bloomberg The timing looked terrible. As the busiest travel weekend loomed and budget-minded Brits prepared for a quick holiday, UK pilots for Ryanair Holdings Plc called a strike, threatening ugly scenes at airports around the country. The chaos never happened. All of the discount carrier’s flights operated as scheduled, with minor delays from congestion, the airline said. In the end, …

Bloomberg Rakesh Gangwal, the billionaire co-founder of Indian budget airline IndiGo, will support company proposals at a shareholder meeting next week to expand its board after an agreement on policy changes, months after he accused his fellow co-founder of corporate-governance lapses. The board of IndiGo, Asia’s biggest budget airline by market value, has approved a new related-party transaction policy, Gangwal …

Bloomberg Kohl’s Corp rose in early trading after CEO Michelle Gass said comparable sales gained ground in the latter part of the second quarter and that store traffic is on the rise, thanks to its partnership with Amazon.com. While same-store sales fell 2.9 percent for the full quarter, missing analysts’ projections, according to Consensus Metrix, Kohl’s posted profit of $1.55 …

Bloomberg Jumia Technologies has identified improper transactions at the Africa-focused online retailer’s Nigeria business that amounted to as much as 4 percent of first-quarter sales. While the Berlin-based company says it’s taking measures to cut out instances of wrongdong, the findings backed up warnings made by short-sellers Citron in a report three months ago, which brought an abrupt end to …

Bloomberg Qantas Airways Ltd will run marathon ghost flights from New York and London to Sydney carrying just a few staff to see how the human body holds up before commercial services start. Qantas said it will simulate the world’s longest direct flights with Boeing Co Dreamliners as soon as October. The payload of 40 passengers and crew, most of …

Bloomberg Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, trying to contain the damage it has suffered from staff taking part in Hong Kong’s anti-Beijing protests, cautioned employees that misuse of social-media platforms could be a breach of rules set by China’s authorities. In a message to employees, Cathay said that posting, responding and sharing content on social media could go against the demands …

Bloomberg Poor water quality saps one-third of potential economic growth in the most heavily polluted areas, according to a new global analysis by the World Bank that underscores how crucial clean water is to productivity. “Deteriorating water quality is stalling economic growth, worsening health conditions, reducing food production, and exacerbating poverty in many countries,” World Bank Group President David Malpass …

Bloomberg A global glut in natural gas is threatening to undermine a $4 billion investment by Reliance Industries Ltd. aimed at boosting profits at the world’s largest oil refining complex. The project made all the sense in world when energy magnate Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate announced it in 2012: convert petroleum coke, or petcoke, one of cheapest and dirtiest refinery by-products, …

Bloomberg An acceleration in economic growth in South Africa could trigger power cuts, with state utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s fragile generation system unable to respond to increased demand for electricity. The energy availability of Eskom’s generation fleet is supposed to be as high as 80%, but is currently as low as 69%, and even a 0.1% rise in gross …