During his trip to Asia recently, US President Barack Obama took the opportunity to tell an audience in Vietnam why the Trans-Pacific Partnership is so important. Since the Vietnamese people may be the greatest beneficiaries of the agreement, this was an excellent venue to praise the power of globalization to bring about shared prosperity to people around the world. But ...

  BLOOMBERG Gulf stocks were mixed as trading slumped in advance of the holy month of Ramadan, when business across the region slows. Dubai’s DFM General Index advanced 0.7 percent at the close and Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index climbed 1 percent. The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index, which tracks 200 of the largest and most liquid stocks in the six-nation ...

  Bloomberg China’s quest for raw materials for its aluminum smelters and alumina refineries promises to deliver a 15-year boom for exporters of bauxite, according to Rio Tinto Group, which is spending $1.9 billion to raise output. Global demand is already growing rapidly and will outpace the 4 percent-a-year lift London-based Rio forecasts for aluminum in the medium-to-longer term, Alf ...

  Bloomberg Naoko Otsuka didn’t think twice about paying the equivalent of $23 for 5 ounces of chocolate. The dark-brown slivers of sweetness weren’t just a treat, the Japanese homemaker said, but an opportunity to learn more about a superfood. The six bars Otsuka bought from a store in Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya shopping district were made by an artisan manufacturer ...

  Bloomberg The U.S. and China have made progress on their exchange-rate debate over the years while the Asian nation’s ability to control excess capacity will be central for expanding its economy, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said on Sunday in Beijing. Lew, speaking to students at Tsinghua University, said China’s government is moving in the right direction on its ...

  Bloomberg The United Arab Emirates’ currency peg is here to stay, the central bank governor said, after contracts used to bet on a devaluation rose to the highest since March. Policy makers don’t see pressure on the dirham and the U.A.E. is committed to its longstanding peg to the dollar, HE Mubarak Rashed Al Mansoori told reporters in Abu ...

  Bloomberg Carlos Dominguez, who is set to become finance secretary in the Philippines, said the incoming government of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte is willing to initially lose revenue through income-tax cuts to help boost economic growth and reduce poverty. Lower income levies will be part of a tax reform bill submitted to lawmakers by September, Dominguez, 70, said in an ...

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank’s ultra-loose monetary policy has helped boost growth and inflation in the euro area, according to research by the Bank of Spain assessing the impact of quantitative easing in the 19-nation bloc. The ECB’s actions would have added about 1.4 percentage points to the bloc’s total output and lifted prices by about 1.2 points respectively ...

  Paris / AFP The German and French central banks issued downbeat growth forecasts, as the EU Commission came under pressure to bring Paris in line over excessive deficits. The Bundesbank said the powerhouse German economy would expand by 1.7 percent this year, slowing to 1.4 percent in 2017. This was a downgrade of previous forecasts of 1.8 percent and ...

  Bloomberg Every state or municipal government will eventually face the question of whether to raise taxes. Since the era of George H.W. Bush, officials answer increasingly “No.” “It’s politically hard to make a case for tax increases, and particularly at a time when people have less money in their pockets,” said Lucy Dadayan, a senior policy analyst with the ...