December, 2018

• 24 December

  US political issues keep investors on tenterhooks

  

  Bloomberg If emerging markets had their way, this Christmas week would be like any other: quiet, with just a handful of economic releases and low trading volumes. But political dramas playing out in the US are keeping investors on tenterhooks. The US government shutdown over President Donald Trump’s demand for border-wall funding is likely to last past Christmas. And even ...

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• 24 December

  Uber loses UK lawsuit over drivers’ employment rights in gig economy

  

  Bloomberg Uber Technologies Inc lost a UK lawsuit over the employment rights of its drivers, in a landmark judgment that threatens to force companies in the country’s burgeoning gig economy to offer benefits such as paid vacations. London’s Court of Appeal dismissed a challenge by the ride-hailing firm over a lower court ruling that found its drivers are “workers,” meaning ...

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• 24 December

  Canadian battery maker says ‘tech costs’ will drop

  Bloomberg CellCube Energy Storage Systems Inc, a Canada-listed maker of batteries that can last for as long as two decades, said the cost of its technology may halve within four years, potentially boosting its uptake over lithium-ion units. Costs of its vanadium redox flow battery units, which can discharge power for four hours, will decline to $150 per kilowatt hour ...

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• 24 December

  Telefonica chief takes no chances as Elliott stalks Europe

  

  Bloomberg The mere mention of Elliott Management Corp is enough to rattle any telecom executive after the New York activist fund took on Telecom Italia SpA — Europe’s most indebted phone company — and removed its CEO. So when Elliott this month denied a media report it was targeting southern Europe’s other debt-laden carrier, Telefonica SA, it seemed the Spanish ...

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• 24 December

  Pakistan’s former PM Sharif sentenced to 7 years in prison

  

  Bloomberg A Pakistani court convicted former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of corruption and handed him a seven-year prison term, sparking protests by his supporters. Arshad Malik, a judge of the accountability court, delivered the verdict in Islamabad on Monday after finding that Sharif had accumulated wealth through unknown means. Sharif, who was acquitted on the second charge and released from ...

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• 24 December

  Sudan braces for more protests

  

  Bloomberg Sudanese doctors went on strike as the army pledged its loyalty to President Umar al-Bashir amid some of the biggest anti-government protests in his rule. At least eight people have been killed in demonstrations that have rocked the African nation’s cities since mid-last week, as discontent with an economic crisis and soaring living costs have developed into calls for ...

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• 24 December

  Burundi’s political capital now is Gitega

  Bloomberg Burundian authorities decided to move the political capital to the city of Gitega in the central province, from Bujumbura, government spokesman Prosper Ntahorwamiye said on Burundi National Television. Bujumbura will remain the economic capital as many of country’s business activities’ are based there, Ntahorwamiye said. At least five ministries and their agencies will start working from Gitega in Janaury ...

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• 24 December

  Italy to pursue expansionary goals: PM

  

  Bloomberg Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the government will keep pursuing its expansionary economic goals and vowed the populist coalition would complete its full five-year term. “The budget starts with a clearly expansionary signal, and maintains that even after the changes made following the negotiations with Brussels,” Conte told Italian daily La Stampa in an interview. The government initially ...

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• 24 December

  May seeks to bridge divide over ‘Brexit’

  Bloomberg Theresa May urged Britons to abandon the Leave-Remain split that has beset the country since the Brexit referendum in 2016. After 2 1/2 years of division, it’s time to “put aside our differences and focus on what really matters,” the UK premier wrote in a letter to readers of the Daily Express newspaper. In a missive also aimed at ...

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• 24 December

  Trump sees winning hand as critics say otherwise

  

  Bloomberg Donald Trump is coming off one of his roughest weeks as president, at least in his critics’ eyes — instigating a government shutdown fight, provoking his defense chief’s resignation, abruptly pulling US troops from two global hotspots, and even thinking about firing the head of the US central bank. Yet, as hard as it is for the outside world ...

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