Bloomberg Indonesia’s economy grew faster than economists expected last quarter, showing resilience in the face of a series of interest-rate hikes and weaker global demand. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 5.18 percent in the fourth quarter from a year ago, compared with the 5.1 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. That took expansion for the whole year ...

Bloomberg China’s back buying more US soybeans just days after the last round of purchases by the world’s top importer. State-run buyer Cofco Corp. bought almost 1 million metric tons of the oilseed, while Sinograin purchased more than a million tons, the two companies said in separate statements. That follows an announcement that they had purchased 2 million tons from ...

Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp. is buying back as much as 600 billion yen ($5.5 billion) of stock, as founder Masayoshi Son steps up efforts to close the disparity between what he thinks the company is worth versus its market value. Proceeds from the 2.4 trillion yen initial public offering (IPO) of its telecommunications business in December will be used to ...

Bloomberg Every time Bangkok fruit seller Veerachai Roopsuwanakul tries to buy an air purifier, he gets the same response: “Out of stock.” “We never imagined the air could get so bad,” said Veerachai, who now wears a face mask to filter out dust. “We can’t find a purifier in shops or online.” The Thai capital is grappling with a second ...

Bloomberg Guaranteed jobs, health care, and housing are in a draft of the Green New Deal environmental package set to be unveiled by Democrats this week, but the proposal doesn’t explicitly include the ban on fossil fuels called for by some supporters. Instead, the draft of the much anticipated resolution being crafted by Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York representative, ...

Bloomberg London notched up 16.2 billion pounds ($21 billion) of investment in commercial real estate last year, beating out Manhattan for the top spot globally despite mounting anxiety about Brexit. In fact, the pound’s 13 percent decline against the dollar since Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union, together with enduring demand from tenants for office space, have proven ...

Bloomberg Google parent Alphabet Inc. warned that its business may be damaged by changing data privacy practices, new digital advertising polices and software bugs that leak user information. The company filed its annual report and added language that suggests it is adjusting to stepped-up regulatory scrutiny and evolving consumer attitudes toward data and privacy online. “Changes to our data privacy ...

Bloomberg UK growth is set to be sluggish for the next few years even if a Brexit deal is secured, according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. In a report on Wednesday, the think tank lowered its estimate for growth this year to 1.5 percent from 1.9 percent, and said output will pick up only slightly to ...

Bloomberg Daimler AG is preparing a “comprehensive” cost-cutting program to secure profitability as the German automaker fights through a US-China trade spat, slowing demand in Europe and North America and surging expenses to develop electric vehicles. The Mercedes-Benz manufacturer is stepping up efforts to shore up margins and counter pressures that are unlikely to blow over anytime soon. After a ...

Russia’s official statistics agency is displaying a feverish optimism under its new boss, Pavel Malkov, who took office in December. On Monday, the agency reported that in 2018, the country’s economy grew the fastest since 2012. Coming on top of a recent data revision that eliminated the 2016 recession, the recent numbers seem increasingly fishy, including to some government economists. ...