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  Bloomberg Iran has signed a $1 billion deal with private investors to develop Mehdiabad, one of the world’s largest zinc mines, which it expects to go on stream in next four years and produce 800,000 ton-nes of zinc concentrate per year. The state-owned Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organisation (IMIDRO) said in a weekend statement it ...

  Bloomberg Oil rebounded above $48 a barrel amid a reported decline in US crude stockpiles as the International Energy Agency said the market needs time to drain a global inventory glut. Futures advanced as much as 2.4 percent in New York after slumping almost 11 percent the previous seven sessions. US inventories fell by 531,000 barrels last week, the ...

  Bloomberg It seems the only way to stop Indians from buying more gold is to take their money away. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government spent 16 months trying to persuade Indians to deposit their jewelry in the bank to earn interest, in an effort to curb soaring imports of the precious metal. But the program has only lured a ...

  Bloomberg China will allow investors to buy mainland bonds in Hong Kong this year, Premier Li Keqiang said at a briefing on Wednesday, adding to recent moves to ease access to the nation’s debt market. Policy makers will allow overseas funds to buy onshore bonds in transactions carried out in Hong Kong, Li said on Wednesday at a press ...

  Bloomberg Mitsubishi Corp., Japan’s biggest trading house, has hired Rothschild to sell its minority stake in an Australian thermal coal mine, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Mitsubishi is sending preliminary information to potential buyers for its 31.4 percent holding in the Clermont mine in Queensland state, according to the people. It will shortly seek expressions of ...

  Bloomberg Sembcorp Industries Ltd. said recurring payment delays by Indian electricity retailers are piling on costs to operators and are bad for the renewable power business it wants to build. Payment delays risk “affecting development of the sector,” Sembcorp India Chief Executive Officer Vipul Tuli said in an interview in New Delhi. The local unit of the Singaporean conglomerate, ...

  Bloomberg A new estimate showing that 14 million Americans could lose health coverage by next year under the GOP Obamacare-replacement plan leaves House Republicans in a bind with its dire picture of the bill’s effects heading into the 2018 congressional elections. Even as the Trump administration challenged the estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, several Senate Republicans said the ...

  Bloomberg UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond scrapped a plan to increase tax on the self-employed, after a storm of criticism from legislators in his own ruling Conservative Party. Hammond was accused of breaking a manifesto pledge not to hike national insurance contributions, made by the Tories before they won the 2015 election, when he announced the proposal ...

  Bloomberg The UK jobless rate matched its lowest since 1975 in the three months through January but Britons are seeing their wages go nowhere. Unemployment unexpectedly declined to 4.7 percent, matching the rate it last reached in 2005, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. The number of people in work rose by 92,000 to 31.9 million, the ...

  WASHINGTON / AP Americans spent only slightly more last month at retail stores compared with January, a sign of consumer caution despite rising optimism about the economy. The Commerce Department said Wednesday retail sales ticked up a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent in February, after a much bigger gain of 0.6 percent the previous month. January’s gain was revised higher. ...