Bloomberg Facebook Inc’s Libra digital currency will be a focus for antitrust and financial regulators in the near future, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said, confirming an early-stage probe into how the new payment system will work. “From both a competition and a financial stability perspective, Libra will have our interest,” Vestager told reporters in Copenhagen. She said the EU ...

Bloomberg Incoming European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde offered a clear sign that she’s ready to follow Mario Draghi’s path and keep monetary policy ultra-loose to lift euro-area inflation. In her first comprehensive comments on monetary policy since winning the job, she said the ECB has the tools to tackle a downturn and must be ready to use them ...

Bloomberg India’s path to economic recovery faces another obstacle, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking the state road builder to stop constructing highways after its debt ballooned almost seven-fold over the past five years. “National Highways Authority of India totally logjammed with unplanned and excessive expansion of roads,” the prime minister’s office wrote to NHAI in a letter. “NHAI mandated ...

Bloomberg South Korea’s exports extended their slump in August as an escalating feud with Japan adds to uncertainties for the economy already elevated amid the US-China trade war. Exports fell 13.6 percent in August from a year earlier, a ninth consecutive month of contraction, data from the trade ministry showed. That compared with economists’ consensus for a 12.5 percent drop. ...

Bloomberg Car sales at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the nation’s biggest car maker, dropped 33 percent to 106,413 units, the company said in a press statement on Sunday. Deliveries of its small cars fell about 72 percent to 10,123, while exports declined 10.8 percent to 9,352. Car sales dropped 34 percent in July, the biggest decline in sales in almost ...

Bloomberg The wireless carrier controlled by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani will probably keep drawing users away from rivals, reaching a market share of as much as 45 percent by fiscal year 2022, from 30 percent as of March, a unit of Fitch Group said. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, which has been offering data tariffs that are as much as 30 ...

Bloomberg On a steamy summer morning, dozens of buses pull up outside a cluster of low-slung, blue buildings in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Women dressed in colourful salwar kameezes disembark, their dupatta body scarves billowing as they make their way past hibiscus bushes and posters proclaiming, “Our aim, no accident.” The night shift at Foxconn Technology Group’s ...

Bloomberg Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, running in an election that could be the fight of his political life, said he hopes to annex all Jewish West Bank settlements. Israel will build more settlements and won’t uproot settlers, Netanyahu said in a speech in the West Bank settlement of Elkana. “With God’s help, we will extend Jewish sovereignty to ...

Bloomberg The US said it’s at the “threshold” of a deal with the Taliban after the latest round of talks ended, even amid reports that the group attacked another Afghan city on Sunday. US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said he’ll be travelling to Kabul for consultations after discussions with the Taliban. The withdrawal of American and NATO ...

Bloomberg Efforts by France and Iran to salvage the nuclear deal are gaining momentum as Tehran sends its special envoy back to Paris while signalling it could be edging closer to a plan to restore some of its oil exports. On Monday President Hassan Rouhani’s special representative and deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, will head an economic delegation on his ...