May, 2016

• 9 May

  Switzerland’s EU model seen through lens of Brexit debate

  

    Bloomberg It’s not hard to see why Brexit campaigners tout Switzerland as a model for Britain’s life outside the European Union. The Swiss have kept prospering as one of the world’s richest countries despite opting for treaties instead of membership to define their relationship with the bloc that surrounds them. While the EU accounts for 1 in 3 francs ...

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• 9 May

  UK, Russia offer lowest rates of corporate tax, study finds

  Bloomberg Russia and the U.K. give companies the lowest effective tax rates among the world’s leading economies, according to a report by UHY, a network of auditors and consulting firms. Companies in Russia pay corporate tax at 20 percent while in the U.K. it’s 21 percent, UHY said in the study of rates applied to $1 million of taxable profit. ...

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• 9 May

  German factory orders advance in March as exports pick up

    Bloomberg German factory orders picked up in March as strong global trade helped offset a lull in domestic demand. Orders, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, advanced 1.9% from the prior month, when they fell a revised 0.8 percent, data from the Economy Ministry in Berlin showed on Monday. The reading, which is typically volatile, compares with a median ...

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• 9 May

  Private investment gains ground in Hungary’s hospitals

  

    Bloomberg A $62 million construction project on the banks of the Danube River is the biggest bet to date that Hungary’s crumbling public health-care system guarantees a bright future for private hospitals. Deteriorating conditions at state hospitals, where patients routinely need to bring their own toilet paper, have pushed people to pay for care outside the communist-era relic. Private ...

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• 9 May

  Middle-class tax cut is ‘floor’ for talks in Congress: Trump

  

    Bloomberg Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said his chief economic concern is giving the middle class a sizable tax cut, while other proposals, including lowering taxes on businesses and the wealthy, were starting points for negotiation. “I have to negotiate now with senators and congressmen,” Trump said during an interview that aired on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the ...

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• 9 May

  Brazil’s inflation accelerates above all forecasts in April

  

    Bloomberg Brazil’s consumer inflation accelerated more than all analysts forecast in April, pushing the market to temper bets the central bank will lower interest rates. The benchmark IPCA consumer price index climbed 0.61 percent after a 0.43 percent rise the previous month. That was more than the median forecast for a 0.54 percent increase from 44 economists surveyed by ...

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• 9 May

  Latin America’s only net creditor about to rejoin mere mortals

  

    Bloomberg At times, Chile’s economy has appeared super-human. Rapid economic growth, low inflation, trade surpluses and a strong currency have all combined to make it the wealthiest nation in South America, overtaking traditionally richer economies such as Argentina and Uruguay. That was achieved even as the government amassed savings of more than $23 billion in two sovereign wealth funds. ...

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• 9 May

  Brenntag slumps after profit misses on oil, Venezuela

    Bloomberg Brenntag AG’s first-quarter profit missed analyst estimates after the world’s largest distributor of chemicals was hit by a currency devaluation in Venezuela and slump in demand for additives used by the oil and gas industry. Earnings were “surprisingly low” due to weakness in the Venezuelan currency, oil and gas and the North American industrial environment. Brenntag stuck to ...

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• 9 May

  Australia’s strange submarine strategies

  

    On April 25 2016, the very day that Australia commemorated its war dead who fell in Europe a century earlier, Australia sent a private note to France, its former ally, that it had won the bidding process to be preferred designer of 12 new submarines. In announcing the decision, the Australian government made some understandable historical allusions to past ...

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• 9 May

  A look at Indonesia’s strategic choice

  

    Marvin Ott / Mick Zloof SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS The Indonesian military (TNI) and the strategic perspectives of the Indonesian political leadership have been shaped by a tumultuous history of domestic security challenges. Indonesia is a sprawling archipelago of thousands of islands and hundreds of more or less distinct ethnic communities. That geography and ethnography virtually guarantee that national ...

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