Latest Developments

India
The Hindu BusinessLine

HDFC Life pegs claim settlement ratio at 99.7% in FY26

HDFC Life registered a claim settlement ratio of 99.7 per cent for individual death claims in FY26. “Timely and hassle-free settlement of every genuine claim will continue to be our priority,” said Sameer Yogishwar, Chief Operating Officer, HDFC Life. “We are continually enhancing our capabilities and using technology to create an easier, more seamless, and more effective claim settlement process to enable faster turnaround times,’’ he added. The company is leveraging digital workflows, automation, AI-led validation, and analytics to simplify claims assessment and processing. Claimants can now initiate and track claims digitally, upload documents online, and receive timely communication updates throughout the process. Digital claims journeys reduce dependency on physical visits and manual paperwork, which can be emotionally and operationally difficult during stressful situations. Under Project Inspire, HDFC Life is driving ZeroTouch Processing (ZTP), FastTrack processes, and realtime payment enablement in the claims domain. To ensure claimants have a hassle-free experience towards processing the claims, they can reach HDFC Life through the multiple channels available to them – from walking into their nearest HDFC Life branch, connecting with their agent, or even by logging into the company’s portal, the company said. 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.

HDFC Life pegs claim settlement ratio at 99.7% in FY26
Europe
BBC Business

US inflation surges to three-year high of 4.2%

US prices in May rose at their fastest rate in three years, with inflation surging to 4.2%. The rise, from 3.8% a month earlier, was largely driven by rising energy costs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said. It marked the third month in a row the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has risen, with households increasingly feeling the strain of the US and Israel's war in Iran. Higher inflation raises the likelihood of the US Federal Reserve raising interest rates in a bid to curtail spending. The last time inflation was higher was in April 2023, when the US was still grappling with the fallout from the energy shock sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Overall energy bills including gas and electricity were almost a quarter higher in May than a year earlier, with petrol responsible for much of the increase. According to separate figures from motoring group the AAA, the average price of a gallon of regular petrol in the US is currently $4.15, a sharp increase from $2.98 on February 28, when President Donald Trump launched strikes on Iran. In response to the strikes, Iran has effectively shuttered the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway, typically responsible for shipping around a fifth of the world's oil and gas which has resulted in a surge in prices. Elsewhere, the BLS pointed to the increasing cost of plane tickets, personal and medical care, recreation and communication. The CPI is a measure of how much prices have risen in a given month compared to the same month a year prior. The Fed's long-term inflation target is 2%. May's inflation increase captures the challenge facing President Trump and the Republicans ahead of November's midterm elections. Economists have warned that, even with a swift resolution to the war, it could take until 2027 for the the normal flow of goods through the Strait of Hormuz to be restored.

US inflation surges to three-year high of 4.2%
North America
CNBC Economy

Energy prices take center stage as the ECB prepares to decide on rates

The European Central Bank is expected to hike interest rates on Thursday, as policymakers address the threat of second-round inflation effects amid elevated energy prices. Unlike the Fed, the ECB has a single mandate — keeping inflation close to a target of 2% — and recent data shows an uptick in both its headline and core readings. Headline euro zone inflation rose to 3.2% in April as energy prices soared 10.9% year-on-year. The euro zone is a major energy importer and the bloc is particularly vulnerable to the surge in oil prices sparked by the Iran war. But core inflation also rose to 2.5% in April, primarily driven by higher services costs. That's a major concern for the ECB as this could be the first signs of second-round effects. The ECB is also concerned that tighter monetary policy could push the euro zone from feeble growth to outright recession. Nevertheless, the bank's Governing Council is expected to hike its key deposit rate by 25 basis points to 2.25%. Market watchers will also be keeping a close eye on the ECB's projections for inflation and economic growth. The market is pricing in three rate hikes for the rest of the year. "Compared with March, we expect ECB staff to mark down the growth projections for 2026-27 and raise both headline and core inflation projections, reflecting a more persistent energy shock and stronger indirect effects into prices," Sven Jari Stehn, chief European economist at Goldman Sachs, wrote in a note at the end of May. "Our energy price index—the average of oil and gas—is up about 12% through the projection horizon since the March meeting." "The core inflation forecasts will be more interesting, especially for 2027," wrote Anatoli Annenkov, senior European economist at Société Générale in a note from May. "This forecast will tell us a lot about the ECB staff's confidence in coming second-round effects, especially taking into account the weakening activity data since March." "We expect the ECB to keep rates market pricing relatively unchanged," said Deutsche Bank Securities Director Mark Wall in research published early this month. "Interpreting June as a one-off hike won't suit the ECB." Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.

Energy prices take center stage as the ECB prepares to decide on rates
Europe
The Guardian

US inflation jumped to 4.2% in May, the third consecutive increase since start of Iran war

People pump gas at a gas station in Washington DC on 30 May 2026. Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/ShutterstockView image in fullscreenPeople pump gas at a gas station in Washington DC on 30 May 2026. Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/ShutterstockInflationUS inflation jumped to 4.2% in May, the third consecutive increase since start of Iran warBefore the conflict began, inflation was at 2.4%, but the closure of the strait of Hormuz has affected energy prices US inflation jumped to an annual rate of 4.2% in May, the third consecutive monthly increase since the start of the Iran war and a three-year high, as Americans continue to face steep oil prices. Prices have increased sharply over the past several months, rising at an annual rate of 3.3% in March before going up to 3.8% in April. In February, before the conflict began, inflation was at 2.4%. Energy prices were once again responsible for the increase in the consumer price index, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, accounting for 60% of the overall monthly increases. The national average price for a gallon of gas is $4.15, according to AAA, which is slightly lower than where the price was a month ago but still $1 per gallon more than a year ago. Airline fares also increased 26.7% annually, a squeeze travelers may have already noticed ahead of the busy summer season. Other essential everyday expenses, such as food, energy services and clothing, also increased. Stripping out volatile energy and food prices, core CPI increased 2.9%. The White House said the newest inflation figures reinforce that “despite temporary disruptions as a result of Iran’s efforts to subvert the free flow of energy, President Trump’s broader economic agenda continues to deliver meaningful results for the American people”. “Prices of prescription drugs, dairy products, cars, as well as both health and auto insurance continue to decline thanks to the Trump administration’s policymaking,” Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement. “The Administration will continue pushing our affordability agenda to enable Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money.” Since the beginning of the US-Israel war with Iran, inflation has hit its highest levels since 2023, though they still remain well below the peaks recorded in 2022, when inflation hit 9%. Higher prices have dampened Americans’ expectations of their financial outlook. According to a survey released on Monday from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, households have become more pessimistic about inflation, the labor market, finding a job and the potential for layoffs. Consumer sentiment has also plummeted to a historic low, according to data from the University of Michigan, after falling for three consecutive months. The new inflation data puts pressure on officials with the US Federal Reserve, who are meeting for the first time next week under the central bank’s new chair, Kevin Warsh. The Fed has voted to maintain interest rates since the end of last year. The central bank has been aiming for a target annualized inflation rate of 2%. Warsh said he believed the rates, which stand at 3.5% to 3.75%, should be lowered, aligning himself with Donald Trump, who has spent the last year trying to coerce the central bank into lowering rates. Even though prices are rising, the president is unlikely to be deterred from calling for rate cuts. On Tuesday, Trump told reporters that he didn’t think US fuel prices were “very high, relatively speaking.”

US inflation jumped to 4.2% in May, the third consecutive increase since start of Iran war
Europe
BBC Business

The furious dispute over what caused Air India flight 171 to crash

A year ago, Air India flight 171 crashed less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in the western Indian state of Gujarat, en route for London. 260 people lost their lives. The official investigation that followed has sparked intense controversy, in India and beyond, with some questioning its integrity amid claims of conflicts of interest. It is not the first time such an investigation has proved contentious. So is it time for a different approach when investigating air crashes? It was a hot and dry afternoon on 12 June last year, when Flight 171 left the terminal at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Airport in Ahmedabad. Settling into their seats for the nine-and-a-half-hour journey to London were 230 passengers, 53 of them British citizens. Looking after them were 10 cabin crew. On the flight deck were Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a pilot with decades of experience, and his younger colleague, first officer Clive Kunder. Just 32 seconds after take-off the plane crashed, killing all but one of those on board. Another 19 people on the ground were also killed. CCTV footage from the airport and a social media video show the aircraft taking-off in what looks like a normal fashion, but rather than gain height it appears to hang in the air, before gliding gently downwards. It disappears from view behind buildings and trees. Seconds later a huge cloud of flame and black smoke appears, and the magnitude of the disaster becomes apparent. What is not at all clear from the footage, however, is what actually caused the crash. Finding out why so many people died is the job of India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), part of the country's Ministry of Civil Aviation. Under international law, as set out in Annex 13 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, the country in which an accident occurs is directly responsible for the official investigation. Other parties, including the country where the aircraft or its engines were built, can also take an active part as "accredited representatives". In the case of AI171, that means the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The NTSB sent a delegation which included technical experts from Boeing, which made the plane itself and GE Aerospace, which built the engines, as well as the US aviation regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration. According to Annex 13, "the sole objective of the investigation of an accident or incident shall be the prevention of accidents or incidents. It is not the purpose of this activity to apportion blame or liability". For Boeing, a company already reeling from years of safety scandals, it is about the integrity of one of its premium products: the 787 Dreamliner, an aircraft with a hitherto impeccable safety record. Air India, a loss-making airline belonging to the Tata Group, can ill-afford to see its brand tarnished. Families of those who died, meanwhile, want to know what really happened to their loved ones. The final conclusions of the investigation have yet to be published, although more could become apparent in the coming days. But it has already generated intense controversy, which has exposed deeper questions about the way inquiries into major air incidents are carried out. So can national authorities be trusted to conduct investigations that critics say are vulnerable to perceptions of political pressure and corporate influence? In theory, the inquiry should be impartial and informative – a learning process focused solely on improving passenger safety. But in the case of AI171, the information revealed by the investigation so far has triggered a major backlash from safety campaigners, pilots' groups and lawyers acting for the bereaved relatives. A key factor in this has been the preliminary report issued by the AAIB a month after the accident. The 15-page document did not draw any conclusions about the causes of the crash, or make any recommendations.

The furious dispute over what caused Air India flight 171 to crash
Europe
BBC Business

Mike Ashley's Frasers offers £1.73bn to buy all of Hugo Boss

Businessman Mike Ashley's Frasers has made a takeover offer for German fashion brand Hugo Boss. The retail group already owns just over a quarter of Hugo Boss, having steadily built up the stake since 2020, but said on Wednesday it wanted to buy the rest of it for €1.98bn (£1.73bn). Hugo Boss said it would "thoroughly examine the offer and issue a reasoned statement". Frasers, formerly known as Sports Direct, owns House of Fraser, Game, Jack Wills, Evans Cycles and many other brands. It is also the largest shareholder in Boohoo but has had a frosty relationship with the firm. Frasers has built a reputation for swooping in to buy retail brands which have fallen into administration, but its gradual increase in ownership of profit-making Hugo Boss over several years is a different approach. Because it has grown its shareholding so much, Frasers is now close to the 30% ownership level that German law requires it to make an offer for the whole company. The deal would value Hugo Boss at €38 a share, higher than the €36.5 it closed at on Wednesday. Frasers said that it expected the takeover to be completed by the end of this year, providing it passes all the legal checks. Hugo Boss said the "unsolicited" offer had "not been coordinated with the company", adding that it would "inform its shareholders and the public about further developments and next steps". Frasers said on Wednesday that it had "a strong track record in making strategic investments". It said it was "a long-term investor" in Hugo Boss and that it "remains supportive" of its chair and chief executive. It has not had as friendly a relationship with Debenhams, which is still formally named Boohoo.

Mike Ashley's Frasers offers £1.73bn to buy all of Hugo Boss
Europe
The Guardian

China’s BYD aims to be world’s biggest car firm within five years

BYD aims to sell 1.5m vehicles overseas this year. Photograph: Cheng Xin/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenBYD aims to sell 1.5m vehicles overseas this year. Photograph: Cheng Xin/Getty ImagesAutomotive industryChina’s BYD aims to be world’s biggest car firm within five yearsEV maker aims to overtake Toyota, as it plans to spend £1.8bn to build five-minute flash chargers in Europe The Chinese car company BYD has said it aims to be the world’s biggest automaker within the next five years. Targeting Toyota’s long-held top spot, BYD’s founder and chair, Wang Chuanfu said he was confident it could overtake global rivals through rapid advances in battery technology and fast charging, as well as growing production overseas, including Europe. “BYD will truly become the number one automaker globally in terms of ​scale in five years,” he said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Shenzhen. Overnight the company announced plans to spend nearly £1.8bn in Europe to develop infrastructure for five-minute “flash charging” of its cars. The company, based in southern China, overtook Tesla last year as the world’s biggest EV maker by sales. In May it sold more than 160,000 vehicles abroad, up 80% from the year before. It aims to sell 1.5m vehicles overseas this year, up more than 40% from last year’s 1.05m. In 2025, Toyota retained its crown as the world’s top-selling carmaker with 11.3m vehicles, while BYD sold 4.8m. The company’s top international executive, Stella Li, separately told reporters in London that the company would start assembling cars at its new plant in Hungary in the fourth quarter of this year. She also said BYD had paused work on a plant ‌in Turkey while it focused on production in the EU, where locally assembled cars will help it beat tariffs Brussels introduced on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) two years ago. “Hungary is the number one priority right now,” she told Reuters. “The ​second priority will be to focus on finding a second [production] ⁠facility in Europe.” BYD in Hungary recently faced allegations that EU employment laws were being breached, as it races to build its first European factory using Chinese migrant workers. It is also facing claims that excavated soil from the site of the factory in Szeged was dumped on to surrounding farmland, potentially contaminating it; local authorities ordered the destruction of affected crops.

China’s BYD aims to be world’s biggest car firm within five years
North America
CNBC Finance

How pandemic car shortages are still making new and used cars expensive

The shockwaves of the Covid-19 pandemic are still hitting the U.S. car market and pushing prices up, even for exceptionally old cars. The pandemic dealt a severe blow to the total supply of new cars, which has rippled down to the used market. About 8 million vehicles that would have been made for U.S. buyers during those years never were, largely due to production shutdowns and supply shortages, said Jeremy Robb, chief economist for Cox Automotive. Automakers faced with curtailed production weighted their lineups toward money-making high-end vehicles, a strategy they have largely continued. These factors have been pushing up prices for everyone — even customers buying decade-old used vehicles. "I think it's kind of the new normal outside of a big economic impact," Robb said. "Supply is not getting a lot better over the next three to four years." About 16.2 million cars were sold in 2025, up from the pandemic-era low of 13.8 million in 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Cox is forecasting about 15.8 million vehicles will be sold in 2026, while JD Power is predicting 16.3 million. Volumes were already dropping before the pandemic set in. The auto market is historically cyclical, so sales go up and down. But JD Power Senior Vice President Tyson Jominy said the U.S. auto industry has sold roughly 16 million fewer vehicles than it would have if annual sales had held at the 2016 record of 17.5 million. That is about a year's worth of volume gone — about half of it since the pandemic. Fewer vehicles coming to the new market have constrained supply in the used one. "A new vehicle sale is the marble at the top of the mousetrap game," Jominy said. "And when you drop that marble, it's going to go through all the chutes and ladders all the way down to the bottom." In addition to tighter supply, automakers and dealers have also cut back on industry practices like leasing and incentives because supply was so short. "Leasing is really expensive for an OEM," Robb said, referring to the acronym that stands for original equipment manufacturer, another name for automakers.

How pandemic car shortages are still making new and used cars expensive
India
The Hindu BusinessLine

Oval Fertility inks MoU with Merck

Oval Advanced Fertility Care and Merck Specialities, an Indian healthcare arm of Merck KGaA, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen clinical capabilities, to improve transparency and patient experience through technology and data-led approaches. “The partnership with Merck brings together shared values around transparency, clinical excellence, and putting the patient at the centre of every decision,” Veena Reddy, co-founder & director, Oval Fertility said in a release. Pratima Reddy, Managing Director, Merck Specialities, said, “Fertility care in India is evolving rapidly, with patients seeking greater transparency, a more seamless experience and stronger confidence in outcomes. Merck is well positioned to partner with progressive care providers to address these expectations through an integrated approach,” India’s IVF market, valued at approximately $2.35 billion in 2024, is projected to reach $5.03 billion by 2034, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 7.9 per cent, the release added. 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.

Oval Fertility inks MoU with Merck