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Bloomberg Sweden’s government wants to revisit the idea of imposing a tax on the financial industry. Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson says her goal is to have a levy that singles out banks with far more precision than previous proposals. “It should include only the financial sector,” she said in an interview in Stockholm. “We want one that has a more ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has picked a little-known technology firm to help handle payments for its planned credit-card partnership with Apple Inc. The bank struck a deal last year to license payments-processing software from CoreCard Software, owned by Intelligent Systems Corp., to help with its foray into the consumer-card business, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, ...

Bloomberg The new chief of Kazakhstan’s central bank dodged a debt claim in 2014 thanks to a legal system that’s failed to protect lenders from rampant defaults and repeated crises. In 2014, Yerbolat Dossayev and three business partners were given a reprieve on repaying 1.9 billion tenge, then worth $13 million, that they’d personally guaranteed to the central Asian country’s ...

Bloomberg An increasing number of economists see additional stimulus as the Bank of Japan’s next policy step, while they are unanimous in forecasting no change at this week’s board meeting. Some 37 percent of 46 economists surveyed by Bloomberg this month forecast the next policy change will be additional easing, a jump from 18 percent in January. All of them ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s Lion Air, one of the biggest customers of Boeing Co.’s 737 Max plane, is considering switching to Airbus SE amid plans to suspend existing orders it has with the US plane maker, according to a person familiar with the matter. The carrier is suspending delivery of four 737 Max jets it had on order for this year from ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he’s studying options for flag carrier Malaysia Airlines Bhd., including whether to invest more funds, sell it off or even shut the company down. “It is a very serious matter to shut down the national airline,” he told reporters at parliament. “We will nevertheless be studying and investigating as to whether we should shut ...

Bloomberg US retail sales stabilised in January after a plunge the prior month that was larger than first reported, indicating consumers may still be able to help support economic growth after a dismal end to 2018. The value of overall sales rose 0.2 percent after a 1.6 percent drop in the prior month that was the steepest since 2009, Commerce ...

Bloomberg It’s the airport equivalent of road rage: You race to your gate on a tight connection to see the door shut and your plane inching backwards. One reason gate agents are so strict about that closed door is an airline metric called “D-0” (D-zero), which designates a flight that departs at exactly the scheduled time. The industry—and government regulators—rigorously ...

Bloomberg The gloomy state of brick-and-mortar retail has helped push another chain into bankruptcy, and this one is planning a speedy sale in order to dodge liquidation. Z Gallerie LLC, the upscale retailer known for its eclectic home decor, filed for bankruptcy in Delaware. The company blames the filing on self-imposed problems — namely a failure to invest enough in ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE Cabinet, chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has adopted the National Space Strategy 2030 during its meeting at the Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi. The Cabinet meeting was attended by HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy ...