Tokyo / AFP The Australian dollar hit an eight-month high Monday as commodity-linked currencies got a boost on the back of a rise in global equity markets, with investors focusing on a string of central bank meetings. The Aussie currency bought 75.94 US cents in afternoon Tokyo trading, its highest level since July, while the New Zealand and Canadian dollars …

YOKOHAMA / AP Toyota Motor Corp. is responding to the main criticism of fuel cell cars, that making the hydrogen for the fuel is not clean, with plans to help make the hydrogen using wind power. Fuel cells are zero-emission, running on the power created when hydrogen combines with oxygen in the air to make water. But to have a …

Luke Hunt / The Diplomat It’s hardly a secret that much of Southeast Asia is in drought, that Laos has bitterly upset its neighbours with its overly-ambitious dam construction plans, or that the once Western-backed Mekong River Commission (MRC) has been reduced to a shell of its former self. It’s a difficult situation, pushed along by a robust social debate …

Dhaka / Bloomberg Bangladesh’s government lashed out at the central bank in a rare public split as tensions escalate after hackers stole about $101 million from its foreign reserves. Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith vowed to take action against Bangladesh Bank after it failed to inform the government immediately when the funds went missing from an account with the …

Bangkok / DPA The National Health Security Office (NHSO) has planned a budget of 1.89 billion baht (US$53.78 million) for vaccination purposes in the coming fiscal year. If the budget gets the green light, hundreds of thousand girls will get human papillomavirus vaccines (HPV) to boost their protection against cervical cancer, one of the nation’s major killers. “We have planned …

Bloomberg Back in 2010, when U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was kicking off his fiscal squeeze, he rarely tired of saying how his “credible’’ plans gave the Bank of England flexibility on policy. Six years later and the story hasn’t changed much. Cornered by his own pledge to post surpluses from 2020, Osborne must keep tightening the purse …

Bloomberg Industrial production in the euro area opened 2016 with its strongest monthly performance in more than six years, boosted by energy and capital goods. Output jumped 2.1 percent in January from December, helped by growth in Germany, France and Italy, the Eurostat statistics office in Luxembourg said on Monday. From a year earlier, production rose 2.8 percent, the biggest …

Bloomberg Here’s a little known fact: Norwegian banks may soon need to contend with interest rates even deeper below zero. While the key policy rate is at 0.75 percent, the rate on excess reserves fell below zero in September and is now at minus 0.25 percent. With 18 out of 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicting another cut in the …

Brussels / AFP The EU said on Monday it was looking for support from the European Investment Bank at crisis talks in Brussels aimed at helping dairy and other farmers hit hard by plunging prices. Around 100 farmers protested as agriculture ministers gathered just six months after Brussels announced a €500-million emergency package to tackle a crisis partly blamed on …

Bloomberg A British exit from the European Union may not be an immediate shock to London’s standing as a global financial hub. The City, after all, just got a vote of confidence from Europe’s biggest exchange operators, who are considering a 20 billion pound tie-up that would place its holding company in London. Deutsche Boerse AG and London Stock Exchange …