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The Bank of Japan may trim its economic growth forecast for the current year next week, sources familiar with its thinking said, reflecting soft exports and a bigger-than-expected slump in household spending after a sales tax hike in April. But the central bank will roughly maintain its upbeat price projections and stick to its view that the world's third-largest economy will continue a moderate recovery as the pain from the tax hike heals, the sources said on condition of anonymity. With no major change in the broad economic outlook, the BOJ is set to maintain its policy framework, under which it has pledged to increase base money by 60-70 trillion yen ($590-$689 billion) per year via aggressive asset purchases. The decision is expected at the end of a two-day meeting on July 15. "The economic contraction in April-June appears to be bigger than expected, so it won't be surprising if the BOJ cuts its growth projection," said Junko Nishioka, chief Japan economist

After weeks of political wrangling, Chile's Finance Minister unveiled changes to a tax reform bill late on Tuesday, including a larger increase in the corporate tax rate in exchange for concessions opposition lawmakers called for. _0"> The reform, a centerpiece of President Michelle Bachelet's administration, maintained an overall goal of increasing tax revenue by $8.2 billion, equivalent to 3 percent of gross domestic product. Corporate taxes will now gradually increase to 27 percent by 2017 from a current 20 percent, according to the agreement between the minister and the Senate's five-member Finance Committee. In the bill as initially presented to Congress, corporate taxes were to increase to 25 percent. "We've reached a historic agreement ... we've managed to move forward on the most complex and profound tax reform in the last 30 years," said Finance Minister Alberto Arenas from Congress in the port city of Valparaiso. With the tax reform

The Federal Reserve has begun detailing how it plans to ease the U.S. economy out of an era of loose monetary policy, indicating it will end its asset purchases in October and appearing near agreement on a plan to manage interest rates in the future, according to minutes of the last Fed policy meeting. The minutes from the June 17-18 meeting indicate the Fed envisions using overnight repurchase agreements in tandem with the interest it pays banks on excess reserves to set a ceiling and floor for its target interest rate. Though no decisions have been announced, the discussion has become detailed enough for Fed officials to contemplate the proper spread between the two - mentioned in the minutes as 20 basis points. The minutes showed the Fed participants also "generally agreed" that monthly bond purchases would end in October, with a final reduction of $15 billion in monthly purchases of U.S. Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. Fed officials expressed overall c

Malaysia's CIMB Group Holdings Bhd is seeking to acquire two lenders to create the country's biggest bank, a source familiar with the deal said, a move that is likely to push larger rival Maybank and others in the region to bulk up too. CIMB, the nation's second-largest bank, is likely to offer an all-stock deal to buy RHB Capital Bhd and Malaysia Building Society Bhd although details have yet to be hammered out, the source said. The source declined to be identified as the matter was not yet public. Shares in all three banks were halted pending the release of a material announcement. The proposal comes ahead of a planned partial integration of Southeast Asian economies that is due to begin by the end of next year, with countries in the 10-nation alliance keen to build national champions to bolster their banking systems. CIMB has been the most acquisitive of Malaysia's banks and a deal would be the last major move by CEO Nazir Razak, brother to the prime minister,

German retailer Metro is not interested in bringing together its Kaufhof department stores with the struggling Karstadt chain, its chief executive said. _0"> "Karstadt is still absolutely not an issue for us," Metro Chief Executive Olaf Koch told journalists at an event late on Wednesday. Speculation has long swirled about a possible merger between the two former giants of German retail and flared up again this week after the chief executive of loss-making Karstadt stepped down after only five months in the job, hinting at a lack of support from the firm's billionaire owner. Karstadt was rescued from insolvency in 2010 by Nicolas Berggruen, but unions have accused him of not investing enough in the chain, allowing Kaufhof to take market share. Department stores around the world have faced difficulties in recent years due to competition from e-commerce players like Amazon, prompting suggestions Kaufhof could buy Karstadt or a third party investor could buy an

Struggling British baby products retailer Mothercare, fighting off a takeover bid from U.S. group Destination Maternity, named its interim chief executive as its permanent CEO on Thursday. _0"> Mark Newton-Jones, who led online retailer Shop Direct for almost a decade, took over as interim boss in March, replacing Simon Calver who quit in February after a profit warning showed his plans to revive the group were faltering. Newton-Jones will take up his place on the Mothercare board on 17 July. "I am very much looking forward to leading the Mothercare group at such an important time in its development," he said. "We now need to put in place the building blocks to strengthen the UK performance and I believe there is then a tremendous opportunity to take this business forward." Destination Maternity has had two bid proposals for the British group rejected. (Reporting by Kate Holton , editing by James Davey)

A planned merger of the Dubai Financial Market and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) has been shelved for the foreseeable future as terms for the politically sensitive move could not be agreed, sources told Reuters on Thursday. Having been mooted for a number of years, a merger of the DFM and the ADX seemed to take an important step closer last year as investment banks were hired to advise on a tie-up - a move revealed by Reuters last October. The state-backed deal, seen as one of the biggest changes in the country's financial industry in recent years, was expected to energize financial markets in the United Arab Emirates, making it easier for investors to operate across the markets, stimulating trade and attracting more foreign investment. However, despite a number of key impediments being overcome since then, talks have stalled and a deal is now unlikely to happen any time soon. "It's been shelved," said one Abu Dhabi-based banking source aware of the ma