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As anyone who’s attended an Indian wedding knows, we far too often leave vital organizational tasks till the last minute, then tackle them all in an enormous, frenetic rush. The countdown to the 1 July deadline for the introduction of India’s new goods and services tax, or GST, feels a lot like that. This is perhaps India’s most comprehensive and ...

It took S&P Global Ratings five extra years of hand-wringing to acknowledge that Indonesian sovereign debt was investment grade. Now that it has, expect the ripples to be felt in places other than the bond market. Fitch Ratings gave the Southeast Asian nation the all-important upgrade in December 2011. That was 14 years after the Asian crisis led 59 percent ...

When it comes to productivity, only two things are undebatable: that the official rate of US productivity growth has stalled since at least 2007, having started to slow before then, and that there is no consensus about why or what to do about it. There is, additionally, some broad consensus that without stronger productivity growth going forward, standards of living ...

Reuters Egypt’s stock market on Tuesday recovered some of the previous day’s heavy losses while Gulf bourses were weaker as investors booked profits ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, when trading volumes and liquidity often decrease. Cairo’s index rebounded 1.1 percent after tumbling 2.5 percent on Monday, its largest single-day decline since Jan. 19, after the central bank unexpectedly ...

Bloomberg US stocks edged to all-time highs and the euro strengthened after data from Germany and France signaled the region’s economic recovery remains on track. Brazilian assets stabilized. The S&P 500 Index’s fourth straight gain took it within two points of a record, while technology companies boosted Stoxx Europe 600 Index after Nokia Oyj settled a litigation with Apple Inc. ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc is getting aggressive in Canada — and one needs to look no further than its latest mortgage rate for proof of broader ambitions. HSBC Canada is offering five-year fixed-term mortgages at 2.39 percent, undercutting the lowest discretionary rates at the largest domestic lenders including Toronto-Dominion Bank (TDB) and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). “I want to ...

Bloomberg The UK’s departure from the European Union is unlikely to go smoothly, according to Bundesbank board member Andreas Dombret. “It doesn’t look like a soft Brexit to me at all,” Dombret told David Ingles in a Bloomberg TV interview in Tokyo on Tuesday. “It looks like either a hard Brexit or a very hard Brexit.” Positions on both sides ...

Bloomberg Selling aircraft to the world’s elite is set to remain a struggle as concerns about the fallout from Brexit and political uncertainty in the US weigh on buyers of corporate jets, according to Embraer SA. Western European markets are sluggish, and demand could dip in the US, said Michael Amalfitano, who took charge of the Brazilian company’s corporate-aircraft division ...

Bloomberg Lululemon Athletica Inc. is in advanced talks for a one-year lease at a store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, helping to fill space in an area that has recently been plagued by retail vacancies, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The active-wear maker is taking 8,000 square feet (743 square meters) at 597 Fifth Ave., across the ...

Bloomberg Ethiopian Airlines was betting Airbus SE’s new A350 widebody would help it lure lucrative business-class passengers away from the likes of Emirates, but nagging delivery issues are putting Africa’s largest carrier behind schedule. The airline won’t receive 10 new planes by the end of June as planned, with some coming as late as next year, Thomas Gabreyohannes, the carrier’s ...