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  Bloomberg Asia’s airlines, tour agents and cruise operators are on alert for a tourism slowdown in Thailand following the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The government called on the country to avoid “joyful events” for 30 days and to dress in mourning for a year. Travel companies across the region say they’re now trying to grasp the potential consequences ...

  Bloomberg China Construction Bank Corp., the nation’s second-largest lender, said it agreed to form an almost 5 billion yuan ($743 million) debt-to-equity pact with Yunnan Tin Group. The agreement is part of a larger 10-billion yuan framework the two companies signed to cut Yunnan Tin’s debt ratio, the Beijing-based lender said in a statement on its website on Sunday. ...

  Bloomberg The Serbian central bank left borrowing costs unchanged for a third month, disregarding an unexpected inflation slowdown and watching out for the dinar’s reaction to the increasing prospects of an interest-rate increase in the U.S. The National Bank of Serbia left the benchmark one-week repurchase rate at 4 percent, according to a statement on its website. Twenty-one of ...

  DUBAI / Reuters National Commercial Bank (NCB) missed analysts’ forecasts on Sunday by reporting a 1.6 percent fall in third-quarter net profit, as Saudi Arabia’s largest listed lender provided more evidence that a weaker economy is hurting the banking sector. Banks in the kingdom are feeling the pinch as depressed oil prices slow economic growth to its lowest level ...

  Reuters JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, reported a 7.6 percent drop in quarterly profit after recording a tax expense, compared with a rare tax benefit a year earlier. The bank’s net income fell to $6.29 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 from $6.80 billion in the same quarter of 2015. Earnings per ...

  Frankfurt / AFP European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi will be under pressure this week to clarify the bank’s stimulus plans after investors were spooked by talk of an end to its massive bond-buying programme. The ECB governing council is not expected to make any changes to its ultra-loose monetary policy at its regular meeting on Thursday, keeping interest ...

  Bloomberg The world’s largest emerging markets must double trade between their countries in the next four years and unite to fight terrorist threats that hurt economic prosperity, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. Noting intra-BRICS trade was $250 billion, Modi said: “We should set ourselves a target to double this number to $500 billion by 2020”. The eighth annual ...

  AP Japan has withheld its annual UNESCO dues, saying it wants to make sure the UN body properly functions to foster trust among member nations. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, asked by a reporter, confirmed that Japan withheld dues of nearly 4 billion yen ($40 million) for this year. He refused to say if that was to protest UNESCO’s listing ...

  Bloomberg North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Saturday that immediately exploded after launch. The missile was thought to be a mid-range weapon capable of hitting U.S. military bases in Japan or Guam in a move that comes as the international community considers further sanctions on the isolated nation. The projectile, believed to be a Musudan missile, was fired ...

  Bloomberg China is preparing to launch a manned spacecraft on Monday, marking a crucial step toward the country’s ambition to build and operate its first space station by 2020. The spacecraft is scheduled to blast off on a Long March-2F carrier rocket at 7.30 a.m. Beijing time from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in western Gansu province, Wu Ping, deputy ...