Paris, France / AFP Sales of cars in the European Union surged by 16 percent in May compared to a year earlier, continuing a 33-month rise and nearing pre-recession levels, manufacturers said Thursday. A total of 1.29 million new cars were sold in the 28-nation bloc, a tally close to that of May 2008, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (EAMA) …

  Vilnius, Lithuania / AFP The European Commission is expected to launch legal action against France over its application of the national minimum wage to foreign truck drivers, a top EU official said. Brussels will send a formal letter launching the procedure “in a few hours”, said Elzbieta Bienkowska, the EU’s internal market chief. “From the single market perspective it raises …

  German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent and ninth visit to China to attend the annual government-to-government consultations might have been the most difficult one so far. This time Merkel arrived with a much longer list of pressing issues to discuss than before, including issues such as market economy status, overcapacity in steel exports, the South China Sea dispute, and the …

  Noah Smith In the past year, a huge amount of money has been flowing out of China. In the past, when this happened, it was because the Chinese central bank was buying foreign assets. But this time the People’s Bank of China has been selling foreign assets — it’s China’s citizens and companies that are sending their money overseas. …

  Markus Winter SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Kasumigaseki vs Nagatacho – Japan’s powerful bureaucracy versus its political center. For the past three years, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has decidedly tilted the balance in the latter direction. After over half a century of almost unbroken LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) rule, the Democratic Party (DPJ) won a landslide victory in 2009 to …

  Bloomberg Japan’s real estate investment trusts have soared in value to become the priciest in the world. More purchases by one of the biggest investors in the landlord business — the Bank of Japan — may help propel prices even higher. Buying by the BOJ has helped boost premiums on J-REITs, which manage rental properties such as apartments, offices …

  Bloomberg Scorching prices in Canada’s top housing markets are unlikely to see declines because the major drivers are beyond the reach of traditional monetary policy, according to Bank of Montreal’s top economists. “Monetary policy can’t do anything about the inferno,” according to the draft of a report led by Douglas Porter, the bank’s chief economist . “None of the …

  Bloomberg Berkeley Group Holdings Plc said reservations for new homes dropped 20 percent in the five months through May after the developer offered fewer projects for sale ahead of the U.K.’s vote on membership of the European Union next week. The shares fell. “After such strong market conditions for our industry, transaction levels in both the second-hand and new-homes …

  Bloomberg In 2005, George Fontini, a co-founder of Mudd Jeans, had recently sold the business for a reported $45 million to Iconix Brand Group and was looking for something to do. “A friend was doing real estate out here,” Fontini said, “and talked to me about a property [in Amagansett, Long Island]. I came out, looked at it, loved …

DUBAI / WAM In his capacity as Ruler of Dubai, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, issued Law No. (8) of the year 2016 regulating the granting of law enforcement capacity in the emirate of Dubai. The law will ensure proper implementation of legislations by those granted law enforcement …