February, 2019

• 11 February

  Thailand faces escalating political risk

  

  Bloomberg Thailand’s political divisions are erupting again with just over a month to go to the first general election since a coup almost five years ago. The spotlight is now on the fate of a party linked to exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra. The party, Thai Raksa Chart, saw a stunning bid to make Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya its prime ministerial ...

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• 11 February

  Salvini’s League leads in Italy’s regional vote

  Bloomberg The rightist League of Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini emerged at the head of the strongest bloc in elections in Italy’s Abruzzo region, as support for the Five Star Movement tumbled. The League-led center-right alliance took almost 49 percent, with Salvini’s party the biggest contributor at 28 percent. Five Star, the League’s coalition partner in the national government, scored just ...

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• 11 February

  Venezuela oil minister courts India after $20bn hit from US

  

  Bloomberg Venezuela’s oil minister made a surprise appearance at an energy event in India, as the embattled Opec producer seeks closer ties with major crude customers in the face of crippling US sanctions. Manuel Quevedo said on Monday his nation wants to sell more crude to India, and that US measures have resulted in a $20 billion loss to the ...

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• 11 February

  Drax captures first CO2 in move to reduce emissions

  

  Bloomberg Drax Group Plc has started capturing carbon dioxide at its Yorkshire power plant for the first time in a pilot project to develop the technology. The six-month bioenergy carbon capture and storage test aims to suck up a ton of carbon dioxide a day at its biomass plant, with technology that isolates the pollutant from flue gases released when ...

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• 11 February

  China’s holiday spending slows, underlining tough start to 2019

  

  Bloomberg The downward pressure on China’s consumption persisted over the Lunar New Year holiday, the annual festival when people travel, shop, and give gifts or money. People in China spent 1.01 trillion yuan ($149 billion) at restaurants, shopping malls and online outlets over the week-long holiday, according to the Ministry of Commerce. That was 8.5 percent higher than during last ...

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• 11 February

  Imran Khan pledges ‘deep’ Pakistan reforms as IMF vows support

  

  Bloomberg Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan pledged to carry out deep structural reforms of an economy that’s staring at a balance-of-payment crisis, after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) offered to avert it. There was a convergence of views on structural reforms in a meeting with Managing Director Christine Lagarde in Dubai on February 10, Khan said in a twitter post. Pakistan ...

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• 11 February

  ‘Revenue’ flows push India’s budget gap wider

  

  Bloomberg India’s budgets show the government’s been fixing unrealistic revenue targets, and in the process setting itself up for falling short of fiscal deficit goals. While the government has estimated 19.8 trillion rupees ($280 billion) as revenue receipts for the year starting April, history shows it’s missed income targets in each of the past five fiscal years. The risk of ...

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• 11 February

  Toshiba to slash operating profit forecast by half

  

  Bloomberg Toshiba will cut its year operating profit forecast to between 20 billion and 30 billion yen ($180 million and $270 million) from the 60 billion-yen projection it made in November, Nikkei Asian Review reported, without saying where the information came from. Increased costs in sectors like energy are dragging down earnings from core operations, the report said. Toshiba will ...

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• 11 February

  Apple iPhone shipments down by 20% in China

  

  Bloomberg Apple Inc.’s Chinese smartphone shipments plummeted an estimated 20 percent in 2018’s final quarter, underscoring the scale of the iPhone maker’s retreat in the world’s largest mobile device arena against local rivals like Huawei Technologies Co. The domestic market contracted 9.7 percent in the quarter, but Apple declined at about twice that pace, research firm IDC said in a ...

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• 11 February

  Ghosn effect: Nissan, Renault operating profit forecast to decline this fiscal year

  

  Bloomberg What kind of financial blow has the widening scandal surrounding Carlos Ghosn delivered to Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA? Investors are about to get a glimpse when closely watched earnings releases come out this week. The alliance partners have spent the last two months coping with a major reputational hit from Ghosn’s arrest, indictments by Tokyo prosecutors over ...

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