
Japan's Kobe Steel has increased the number of firms it says have been affected by its data fabrication scandal from 200 to 500, and has also found inappropriate actions relating to nine more products, including falsifying data. Earlier this week, Kobe admitted falsifying quality data on some of its products for up to a decade.

Consumer prices rose 1.9% in Argentina in September, government statistics agency Indec said on Thursday, pushing the nine-month inflation reading to 17.6%, above the upper band of the central bank’s target for the year.

Brazil’s police investigation into insider trading by the owners of the world’s largest meatpacker JBS SA has found that they made a profit by taking financial positions before details of their plea bargain deal with prosecutors became public, the head of the probe said on Tuesday.

Brazilian Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said on Thursday “there’s a very good chance” that the country’s proposed pension reform bill will be approved by the end of the year. Addressing a question-and-answer session at an Institute for International Finance meeting in Washington Meirelles said that it would be simpler to pass the bill this year than next year because of political challenges that could come with Brazil’s upcoming presidential election in October 2018.

Banking giant HSBC has named John Flint, current head of retail banking and wealth management, as its new boss. Mr Flint, who takes over from outgoing chief executive Stuart Gulliver, will start his new role next February.

The Conservative Party’s plans for a “no deal” hard Brexit would plunge the UK into immediate recession, cost the British economy £400 billion and wipe 18% off GDP growth by 2030, a leading investment bank has warned.

Global food prices rose slightly in September, as firmer prices of vegetable oils and to a lesser extent dairy products offset declining prices for staple cereal grains. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 178.4 points for the month of September, up 0.8% from August and marking a 4.3% increase from a year earlier.

Venezuela’s triple-digit annual inflation rate is set to jump to more than 2,300% in 2018, the highest estimate for any country tracked by the International Monetary Fund.

The government and treasury of the Falkland Islands have issued (9th October) a new set of crown coins which mark the centenary anniversary of the establishment of the British Royal House. The Royal House came about due to the circumstances just after the fighting for the Great War began (1914–1918).

All countries should join the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) to make sure the landmark treaty aimed at cracking down on illegal fishing succeeds in its aims of ridding the world of a multibillion-dollar scourge that damages human nutrition and environmental sustainability, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said.