Business and Finance news

Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. shares jumped after the developer sold 900 homes in Hong Kong for HK$4.2 billion ($540 million) over the weekend, fueling speculation the city’s housing market is overheating.
Shares of the world’s biggest developer by market value added 1.7 percent to HK$101.80 at 10:41 a.m. Hong Kong time after gaining […]

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The federal government has offered Hawaii $16.6 million in stimulus relief to help cover the costs of prescription drugs for residents eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that the temporary boost is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It comes in the […]

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Pakistan’s central bank aims to resume cutting interest rates when inflation eases, Governor Salim Raza said.
Inflation will slow as the effects of higher energy costs wear off, Raza said in an interview in Singapore today, without saying when. Consumer prices may rise between 11 percent and 11.5 percent in the six months through […]

Paul McKee got his tax credits.
In the final hours of 2009, Missouri officials awarded the developer $19.6 million, a key piece of financing for McKee’s ambitious plan to rebuild a big chunk of north St. Louis.
The funds come in the form of tax credits that pay McKee back for buying hundreds of […]

Owners of a new Folsom combo bike shop-coffee shop that already stretches the norm is expanding some more.
Folsom Bike, which opened in October along with the adjoining Folsom Grind, is adding a studio for spin-cycle classes and a studio for athlete coaching sessions with coach Bruce Hendler of AthletiCamps.
Folsom Bike’s additional departments, set to open […]

Estonia is set to adopt the euro on its target date in 2011 because of the Baltic country’s work on fulfilling economic requirements, European Union Economic Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said yesterday.
“It is quite possible that Estonia will be in the euro by 2011,” Almunia told the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The data […]

Honolulu’s lengthy and contentious battle over regulating bed and breakfast lodgings could be nearing an end.
Bill 7, introduced in the Honolulu City Council nearly two years ago, faces a final vote Dec. 16.
The measure would permit up to 1,275 new bed and breakfast homes in residential neighborhoods, ending a 20-year ban on their permitting.
Bill 7 […]

To Val Sklarov, giving tax breaks and millions of dollars in city loans to move a law firm a few blocks across downtown is basically un-American.
But is it legal?
That’s now a question for the courts to decide, after Sklarov filed a lawsuit last week challenging St. Louis city incentives for the redevelopment […]

The Hawaii Medical Service Association lost $32 million in the third quarter — a result of continued hits from rising health-care costs and declining investment income.
It lost approximately $19 million during the same period last year.
The state’s largest health plan collected $411.1 million in premiums in the third quarter and paid out $403.9 million in […]

Japan’s government could agree as much as $30 billion in new stimulus measures on Monday as economic growth is likely to slow next year due to sluggish personal spending and rising inventories.
Economists doubt whether that amount will be enough to push up growth significantly as the Democratic Party-led government will fund the stimulus with […]