Latest Developments

Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Real estate sector bets on improved execution, lower costs as Iran-US stick to peace MoU

Real estate consultants expect improved execution and reduction in construction costs in the second half of CY 2026 following a peace understanding between Iran and the US. The conflict between the two countries had pushed up the prices of aluminium, steel and other commodities. While there are green shoots like easing of freight rates, cost pressure will ease gradually. “Any meaningful relief on construction inputs - steel, PVC pipes, cables and petro-chemical linked materials - will take 4-8 weeks to percolate through supply chains. Developers should not expect an overnight reset. The benefits will be incremental, but the direction of travel will be positive for project execution timelines in H2 2026,” said Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock Group. Around 5.4 lakh homes are due for delivery this year and 70 per cent of those are in Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. Continuation of conflict would have tested delivery timelines for builders with disrupted supply chains and increased costs. “The US-Iran peace MoU and the subsequent reopening of the Strait of Hormuz are a major geopolitical pivot for India’s real estate industry,” Puri said. “Reduced geopolitical uncertainty can support global trade flows, ease supply chain disruptions, and moderate logistics costs. For India, greater stability in West Asia can strengthen business confidence, improve the investment climate, and reinforce the country’s appeal as a preferred destination for capital, manufacturing, and real estate investment,” said Shishir Baijal, International Partner, Chairman and Managing Director, Knight Frank India. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Real estate sector bets on improved execution, lower costs as Iran-US stick to peace MoU
Europe
BBC Business

Council tax debt rises to £9bn but here's how you can get help

Image source, Getty ImagesByKevin PeacheyCost of living correspondentPublished1 hour agoMore than £9bn is owed to councils in unpaid council tax as people continue to struggle with their finances - but some help is going unclaimed. Newly-published data shows that uncollected council tax had risen to £7.4bn in England by the end of March. Data published separately in Scotland and Wales further pushes up the total. Charities say the latest numbers point to a council tax affordability crisis, with a wider group of people struggling to cover essential bills. Although non-payment of council tax can lead to a prison sentence in extreme cases, there are various discounts and support measures in place of which people are often unaware. The latest government data shows that £2.2bn of council tax levied in England during the financial year to the end of March went unpaid. However, £43bn of what was levied during the year was collected, marking a collection rate of 95.6%, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, external. Vikki Brownridge, chief executive of debt charity StepChange, said: "Our advisors know all too well just how deep the council tax affordability crisis runs. "With one in three of those coming to StepChange behind on this bill, these latest figures are no surprise to us and point to a system that perpetuates debt with little to no constructive route out." Charities are urging anyone struggling to check whether they are eligible for council tax discounts and support. Help to pay for those on low incomes through Council Tax Support, external, but this too crucially requires making an application. The system is different in Northern Ireland where you may claim housing benefit Charities, such as the National Debtline, say local authorities need more funding to provide support which varies significantly. They have also long campaigned for councils to stop the use of bailiffs and threats of court action and prison, arguing that it stops people seeking help for non-payment.

Council tax debt rises to £9bn but here's how you can get help
North America
CNBC Economy

Factory job cuts in June neared financial crisis and Covid levels, S&P says

Job cuts at U.S. factories ran near their highest levels since the end of the global financial crisis in 2009 and the Covid-19 pandemic as worries grew over global demand and rising costs, S&P Global reported Tuesday. Though the firm's manufacturing index ran better than expected for June, it came largely from an inventory rebuild and despite sharp job cuts that were the most since 2009 — excluding the massive labor reductions at the onset of the Covid crisis in 2020. "While there is better news from the manufacturing sector, we remain concerned as factory growth continues to be temporarily buoyed by inventory building amid supply fears. Supply delays grew more widespread in June," said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. Manufacturers have indicated job cuts for three of the past four months as they seek to reduce head count over costs and demand concerns. "Most worrying was the further fall in employment, notably in the manufacturing sector," Williamson said. "Factory job cuts are running at the highest since 2009 if the pandemic is excluded, reflecting concerns over the sustainability of the recent upturn in demand alongside worries over the escalating cost of raw materials." Despite the worries of manufacturing cuts, the jobs picture has been largely solid this year, with strong gains in four of the five months. Manufacturing employment has risen by 23,000 in 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Broadly, the S&P manufacturing "flash" reading for its purchase managers index came in at 55.7, up narrowly from May and better than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 54.8. The reading represents the percentage share of companies reporting growth for the month. On the services side, the flash PMI was at 51.3, also up slightly on the month and slightly better than the consensus forecast for 51. Companies have been under pressure this year from an inflation resurgence that has seen energy prices soar and Federal Reserve officials contemplate raising interest rates, or at least eschewing cuts until the situation in the Middle East is settled. Recent headlines about a ceasefire and possible lasting agreement with Iran have triggered a slip in oil which in turn has helped "restore come confidence" among businesses, Williamson said. However, growth signs are tepid for an economy that accelerated at just a 1.6% annualized pace in the first quarter and a meager 0.5% rate in the fourth quarter of 2025. "The survey signals that current output levels are consistent with the economy struggling to grow much faster than a 1% annualized rate in the second quarter," Williamson said. However, Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh last week characterized economic growth as "solid" and he attributed the "elevated uncertainty" in part to the Middle East conflicts.

Factory job cuts in June neared financial crisis and Covid levels, S&P says
Europe
BBC Business

Burnham likely to replace Reeves if he becomes PM

Image source, EPAByHarry Farley, Political correspondent and Jennifer McKiernan, Political reporterPublished24 June 2026, 04:35 BSTUpdated 3 hours agoAndy Burnham is expected to replace Rachel Reeves as chancellor and offer her a more junior cabinet position if he becomes prime minister, the BBC understands. A spokesperson for Burnham said no decisions had been made about who he would appoint. The MP for Makerfield is the only candidate to have emerged so far for the Labour leadership, and has met Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for talks as he prepares for a likely entry to No 10. Senior Cabinet minister Darren Jones ruled himself out of the running for the leadership on Wednesday, and if there are no other candidates, Burnham could become prime minister by 17 July. The biggest decision Burnham will make as he begins to sketch out a possible cabinet is who will be his chancellor, and most Labour MPs assume Reeves will not continue in that role. As first reported by the Financial Times, external, she is expected to be offered a more junior cabinet position. A close ally of Burnham told the BBC: "Andy really respects Rachel and I'm confident he'll want her in his top team." It is unclear who might replace Reeves as chancellor, with Ed Miliband, Wes Streeting, John Healey and Yvette Cooper among the names mooted. James Purnell, who served as a minister in Gordon Brown's government between 2007 and 2009, is expected to become Burnham's Downing Street chief of staff. Paul Johnson, former director if the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said any chancellor had a number of difficult decisions to take. He said the UK had borrowed more than virtually any other country in the last 25 years at very high rates, but had also failed to grow to pay off the debt. "Simply borrowing more is certainly not an easy thing to do and it's absolutely not a costless thing to do," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, adding: "Growth clearly is the number one priority."

Burnham likely to replace Reeves if he becomes PM
North America
Yahoo Finance

Wall Street is getting trampled by an AI sell-off. South Korean market plunges 10%

Currency dealers monitor exchange rates as a screen shows South Korea's benchmark stock index (KOSPI) in a foreign exchange dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Tuesday. Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images Tech news Investing Economy Stocks See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link Threads Link Copied! Follow Volatility has returned to the stock market, and AI is once again the culprit. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 2.21% and the S&P 500 fell 1.44% Tuesday as investors sold semiconductor chip stocks and other AI-related shares. The Dow, which has less exposure to tech, was down about 0.1%. The S&P and Nasdaq each had their worst day in about two weeks. The declines came after steep sell-offs in Asia. Nerves about AI quickly spiraled into full-on panic trading in South Korea on Tuesday, where the Kospi index tumbled 10%, tripping a circuit breaker that led to a 20-minute cooling-off session. SK Hynix and Samsung, two of the world’s leading memory chipmakers, tumbled more than 12%, dragging the rest of South Korea’s stock market down with them (the two chipmaking giants make up about half of the Kospi’s total market value). “These big moves are part of a growing trend of rising volatility in tech stocks generally,” James Reilly, senior markets economist at Capital Economics, said in a note. “This volatility is, in our view, evidence of excessive froth and calls into question the sustainability of this rally.” US markets kicked off the week on a down note, with the Nasdaq falling 1.3% Monday before extending losses Tuesday. The mild US tech-sell off Monday spilled into Asian trading hours, and then the sell-off intensified Tuesday. Traders’ fear isn’t about anything specific, and there wasn’t any obvious catalyst to lead to such enthusiastic selling. But those nerves continued in the United States, where tech stocks had a rough day. Some investors might be taking profits after strong rallies. Some market analysts pointed to jitters sparked by Google (GOOG) and SpaceX (SPCX) falling somewhat sharply Monday. But Google’s 5% decline was mostly because of a high-profile AI leader defecting to Anthropic, and SpaceX – which dropped 16% Monday – has some post-IPO jitters that are typical for companies whose stocks boom right out of the gate. Google fell less than 1% Tuesday, while SpaceX gained about 1% after fluctuating in volatile trading. Nvidia (NVDA) was about 4% lower, weighing on the broader market. Oracle (ORCL) fell more than 5.5%, putting it down about 27% this month. Other analysts suggested the markets were reacting to the likelihood that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates later this year. But that’s not exactly new information: New Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh held his first press conference last Wednesday to announce that the Fed would double down on its mission to get inflation under control – a promise that prompted a market sell-off as traders interpreted Warsh’s words as a pledge to raise interest rates later this year. Semiconductor chip stocks, which have led the market rally this year, fell sharply Tuesday: Micron Technology (MU) dropped 13%. Marvell Technology (MRVL) sank 9%. Traders are awaiting Micron’s quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. Whatever the cause, with AI companies’ sky-high valuations and incredible growth trajectories, it doesn’t take much to set off investors. The Kospi is up more than 90% this year, so when the wind blows in an unexpected direction, it can lead traders – and, often more consequentially, trading algorithms – to head for the exits. They fear the top of the Jenga tower could tip over.

Wall Street is getting trampled by an AI sell-off. South Korean market plunges 10%
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

India–Latin America trade set to double to $100 billion by 2030, says Uruguay envoy

Uruguay is also pushing to expand the India–Mercosur preferential trade agreement from 450 to 3,000 products, with a long-term vision of a free trade pact. | Photo Credit: Octavio Jones Trade between India and Latin America is expected to double to USD 100 billion by 2030 from the current USD 50 billion, Alberto Antonio Guani Amarilla, Ambassador of Uruguay to India and Coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC), told ANI on Wednesday, highlighting the growing economic partnership between the two regions.”It is very crucial to see that we already have a trade of USD 50 billion that will be USD 100 billion in the year 2030,” Guani Amarilla told ANI in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of LAC FIRST: India-Latin America & Caribbean Business & Diplomatic Conference.He said Latin America expects to remain a strong partner as India advances towards becoming a developed economy, adding that there is significant scope to expand cooperation across productive sectors.Guani Amarilla said Latin America has increasingly emerged as an important partner for India and stressed the need to further deepen economic engagement between the two regions. He welcomed India’s decision to open an embassy in Uruguay next month, describing it as an important step in strengthening bilateral ties. Amarilla said Uruguay hopes External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will attend the inauguration.”We are now very much expecting the fact that India is going to open an embassy in Uruguay next month. We hope that Minister Jaishankar will be able to be the chief guest there,” he said.He also called for greater high-level engagement between the two countries, saying Uruguay would be pleased to host Prime Minister Narendra Modi and would also like to see the President of Uruguay visit India. On trade, Amarilla said Uruguay is seeking an expansion of the existing India-Mercosur Preferential Trade Agreement, which currently covers around 450 products.”We have a preferential agreement with Mercosur and that is something that has been covering 450 products. We want to take it to 3,000 and maybe that’s the first stage to think on a wider possibility of having a free trade agreement,” he said. Amarilla identified minerals, agro-industries and pharmaceuticals as among the key sectors driving trade between India and Latin America and offering scope for further growth.Commenting on global trade, Amarilla reiterated Uruguay’s longstanding support for open markets and free trade.”In the case of Uruguay, we have always been very much favourable to free trade. We have always promoted the possibility of having open markets and free exchange,” he said. Addressing energy markets, Amarilla said fluctuations in oil prices do not necessarily transform economies, citing Uruguay’s own experience of shifting from dependence on imported oil to renewable energy.”What happened to Uruguay, for example, we were practically a net importer of oil and now we are a big producer of renewable energy,” he said.He said India and Uruguay should continue identifying areas of complementarity and collaboration to create mutually beneficial opportunities and expand engagement across sectors. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

India–Latin America trade set to double to $100 billion by 2030, says Uruguay envoy
North America
CNBC Finance

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp unveils sweeping changes to professional golf

Golf fans are finally getting details on a new chapter for the PGA Tour that's designed to elevate competition and raise payouts for winners. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp unveiled the new competitive model for professional golf's premier circuit ahead of the Travelers Championship taking place this week outside of Hartford, Connecticut. Rolapp has prioritized modernizing the Tour since he was appointed as CEO in June 2025 following a 22-year career at the NFL. The Tour's boards also approved Rolapp to succeed Jay Monahan as commissioner following Monahan's retirement at the end of the year, the Tour said Tuesday. Rolapp will retain his role as CEO. "We had a productive meeting yesterday where our boards approved the Future Competition Committee's recommendation to establish a new competitive model for the PGA Tour that will begin with the 2028 season," Rolapp announced Tuesday. Instead of one main tour schedule of events, the new format will feature two distinct series of tournaments: one, a premier track called the PGA Tour Championship Series and a second that offers a pathway toward those elevated events called the PGA Tour Challenger Series. The new format will be familiar to fans of other sports like soccer, where some leagues feature differentiated divisions that promote and retain the best performing teams, while relegating those who don't perform as well to lower circuits. In the press release, Rolapp called it a "new competitive model grounded in meritocracy, with clearer pathways, higher stakes and more consistency when the best players compete together." He added that the focus will now shift to finalizing details and preparing to implement the system for the 2028 season. Wyndham Clark, just off Sunday's US Open win, applauded the changes Tuesday, telling CNBC in an interview that the Tour is in "an amazing spot." "I think this two-track system is going to bring meritocracy and it's going to make it easier to follow the PGA Tour, and then match play should be a lot of fun to watch," he said. "I think the Tour has made an amazing push to get better and improve their product." The proposed two-track system will create a schedule that has roughly 23 to 24 events for the season, including The Players Championship, golf's major championships — The Masters Tournament, PGA Championship, US Open and The Open Championship — season-ending tournaments and any international team events that are contested each year, like the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup. The season will run from around February through August of each year and will generally consist of tournaments with four 18-hole rounds where roughly half the field will advance to play the full event after a 36-hole cut. The Tour will also bring back playoff events that feature so called "match play," where winners are determined by a process of beating other players in head-to-head matchups, rather than by "medal play," which determines a winner by best aggregate score over four rounds of play.

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp unveils sweeping changes to professional golf
Europe
BBC Business

Ten years on, Brexit's economic impact is becoming clearer

ByFaisal IslamEconomics editorNot long after the UK left the EU in 2020, a Bristol-based firm called Eskimo started selling a new kind of high-fashion and energy-efficient electric radiator, based on new technology developed by academics in the city. It was a timely product given Europe's green ambitions, and with orders flowing, its Birmingham factory was being kept busy. The boss Phil Ward tells me his start-up has continued to grow, but that in his view it could have been so much more without what he calls "the Long Brexit effect": in 2020, 40% of his exports went to the European Union, and by 2025 it was just 5%. The post-Brexit deal agreed with the EU by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in December 2020 guaranteed zero tariffs on exports to the EU, but Ward says that despite this, red tape and paperwork not directly related to tariffs were enough to create delays, costs and the expectation of hassle for prospective customers. Eskimo did manage to export some goods to agents in France but it stopped selling directly to European consumers entirely. A planned expansion to Germany floundered. And as Eskimo discovered when it attempted to export towel rails to Australia and New Zealand, both countries abide by international safety standards that are heavily influenced by the EU's CE mark. This matters because one theoretical potential Brexit benefit was that it would allow UK regulators to not follow the EU's safety regulations and take a more pro-innovation, less regulatory approach for high-tech inventions. Eskimo's experience is one example of a broader trend reflected in export figures. The UK Trade Policy Observatory at Sussex University calculated a rapid 26% reduction in the different types of UK exports by 2023, while a new study from Aston University Business School using five years of more detailed trade data concludes a loss of 53.8% of the type of exports and 31.5% for imports. These figures for "trade varieties" are falls in the number of products sent to different EU countries. A decade ago, many economists argued the UK would sustain longer-term economic damage by leaving the EU and many believe that damage has come to pass. But to make that call you have to compare what did happen with what might otherwise have happened were it not for Brexit and doing that is a matter of method and statistical judgement. And that judgement has to account for the fact that the period since Brexit has been a time of huge global flux. The pandemic that struck in the spring of 2020, the war in Ukraine that began two years later and, more recently, the energy price shock sparked by the conflict in Iran all have to be accounted for.

Ten years on, Brexit's economic impact is becoming clearer
Europe
BBC Business

The economic challenges facing the next prime minister

Image source, Getty ImagesByDharshini DavidDeputy economics editorPublished4 hours agoWe've had six prime ministers in a decade and it looks increasingly likely that Andy Burnham will be the seventh. But whoever is in charge, they face the same challenges. That's because what has underpinned political instability over recent years has been, to a great extent, the economy. Lack of job opportunities, lack of improvement in living standards, and pressured public services – the public expects change and its patience has been wearing thin. Burnham has pledged to revive the economy but also stick to the current government's own rules on borrowing and spending. That means only borrowing to invest, not to fund day to day spending, and in a few years' time reducing debt as proportion of the whole economy. Before the US-Israel war with Iran started, Chancellor Rachel Reeves reckoned she could meet her financial rules with £24bn to spare. But much of that could have been eroded because of the conflict. Burnham's pledge to stick to the current government's rules shows he is wary of upsetting the bond markets, the government's lenders, at a time when just the interest repayments on our national debt account for one in every £10 the government spends. Even the plans Burnham has hinted at so far could easily exceed the available wiggle room. His ambitions may be thwarted and some ideas may not survive contact with financial reality. He could tweak those rules. For example, bond markets could be sympathetic towards borrowing to fund more investment if they were convinced that would pay off in the terms of higher growth. Or he could simply look to raise the money from elsewhere to fund priorities, including through taxes – or cutting from other areas. Growth, putting more money in pockets, will have to remain the government's number one priority. Between 1990 and 2007, the average person was better off by roughly 2.5% per year.

The economic challenges facing the next prime minister