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Bloomberg Euro-area inflation was negative for a second month in March, in data released on the eve of the European Central Bank’s first day of expanded debt purchasing to fight deflation. The consumer price index in the 19-nation bloc fell 0.1 percent from a year earlier after a 0.2 percent drop in February, according to data published on Thursday. That ...

Bloomberg Buyers for Britain’s biggest steel operations may be tough to come by. Faced with a market flooded with cheap Chinese exports, Tata Steel Ltd. is planning to sell its U.K. business after several quarters of losses and 2 billion pounds of writedowns left the division with an asset value of almost zero. Steel prices have plunged to the lowest ...

SHANGHAI / Reuters China’s Ministry of Finance unveiled details of its 2016 budget plans on Wednesday, with spending jacked up sharply on many items, including an 11-fold increase for “repairs” to 94 billion yuan ($14.54 billion). Other big increases have been made for health care and family planning, which will get a 47.2 percent boost to 12.43 billion yuan. Spending ...

Mumbai / Bloomberg Tata Steel Ltd., which is considering selling its U.K. unit amid a global glut and weak demand, is turning its focus back to India where it sees a long-term opportunity. India’s second-largest maker of the alloy will look at buying distressed assets as rapid economic expansion fuels demand in the coming years, according to Executive Director Koushik ...

TOKYO / Reuters The Bank of Japan is likely to cut its inflation forecasts for the coming two fiscal years at a quarterly review next month, sources familiar with its thinking say, keeping it under pressure to do more to hit its ambitious 2 percent price target. The downgrades, due largely to falling import prices from the yen’s rise and ...

Taipei / AFP Taiwan’s tech giant Hon Hai said net profit dipped in the fourth quarter, hit by a slowdown in demand for smartphones as key customer Apple warns waning sales of its iPhone. Net income in October-December fell 6.67 percent to $52.9 billion ($1.6 billion) while revenue slipped 4.69 percent, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Hon ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg India’s effort to clean up the world’s worst air is facing resistance from power producers who say the government is asking them to spend too much and revamp old plants too quickly. The nation’s first steps to limit toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants may cost 2.5 trillion rupees ($37 billion) and will take longer than ...

Bloomberg For Canada’s Finance Minister Bill Morneau, tasked with selling his government’s new fondness for deficits, words matter. It’s not spending, it’s investment. Long-term beats short-term. Never use the word deficit, ever. Most important, growth is everything. Since releasing his March 22 budget, Morneau has been on the road building the intellectual case for why he needs to run almost ...

Bloomberg Argentina’s economy grew 2.1 percent in 2015 as a record soy harvest boosted the country’s agricultural exports. Gross domestic product in South America’s second-largest economy expanded by 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter and 3.5 percent in the third quarter, the national statistics agency said on Wednesday. The median estimate of four economists in a Bloomberg survey was for ...

Bloomberg TransCanada Corp. plans to sell as much as 49 percent of its five Mexico natural gas pipelines to a passive partner to help pay for the $10.2 billion purchase of Columbia Pipeline Group Inc. TransCanada is “refinancing” its Mexican business to raise funds after agreeing to buy Columbia Pipeline Group, its biggest-ever acquisition, on March 17, Robert Jones, TransCanada’s ...