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Beijing / Bloomberg China’s coal use is forecast to fall a third year as industrial output slows, adding force to President Xi Jinping’s drive to cut overcapacity and dimming the hopes of global miners for an uptick in demand by the world’s biggest consumer. Demand will slide 2 percent this year and prices will remain at a low level, according ...

HONG KONG / AP For decades, Hong Kong thrived as an Asian business hub thanks to its killer combination of Western freedoms, independent courts and closeness to mainland China’s booming market. Now political and economic ills from the mainland are eroding that edge. Swedish-Chinese author Gui Minhai was counting on Hong Kong’s freedoms when he chose the city as the ...

Bloomberg The European Union is considering easing bank-failure rules introduced to end the era of expensive taxpayer-funded bailouts. A discussion paper prepared by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, envisions setting EU loss-absorbency requirements for its biggest banks, led by HSBC Holdings Plc and Deutsche Bank AG, in line with those issued in November by the Financial Stability Board ...

Bloomberg Former HSBC Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Michael Geoghegan is among 250 business leaders backing the push for the U.K. to leave the European Union. Geoghegan was CEO of HSBC from 2006 until 2010 and his support for “Brexit” stands in contrast to the bank’s current management, which warns it will send 1,000 staff to Paris from London if ...

Paris / Reuters France posted its smallest public deficit last year since the global financial crisis of 2008, data showed , making this year’s government target “perfectly credible” according to the finance minister. The INSEE statistics agency said the public deficit, which includes the combined shortfalls of the central state, local government and welfare system budgets, fell to 3.5 percent ...

Bloomberg Russia hasn’t been able to line up a suitable lead manager for a planned $3 billion Eurobond because of U.S. and EU pressure on major banks not to participate, meaning the high-profile sale is likely to be delayed or even shelved, senior officials said. Only two Western banks are still interested in helping sell the bond, one of the ...

Bloomberg The U.S. economy grew in the fourth quarter at a faster pace than previously estimated, supported by stronger household spending that’s helping cushion the expansion from weakness overseas. The revised 1.4 percent increase in gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, compares with the Commerce Department’s previous estimate of 1 percent, according to figures issued ...

Bloomberg Payrolls rose in 36 states in February and the unemployment rate dropped in 22, a sign labor market slack is gradually diminishing in the U.S. economy. California led the nation with an almost 40,000 increase in employment, followed by a 25,100 advance in New York, figures from the Labor Department showed. Jobless rates in New Hampshire and South Dakota ...

Washington / AP House Republicans are preparing legislation to create a new oversight board that would help Puerto Rico control its finances, a move designed to deal with the territory’s $70 billion in debt. The legislation is in response to House Speaker Paul Ryan’s promise at the end of last year that the House would work with Puerto Rico to ...

Bloomberg Argentina’s historic return to capital markets is facing a new hurdle as holders of as much as $1.5 billion in bonds from its 2001 default say they’ve been unfairly left out of settlement offers. Some of those investors — including Fore Research & Management LP and Varde Partners — teamed with others seeking to keep a judge’s order in ...