ECONOMY

Before Japan's asset bubble catastrophically burst in the early 1990s, stockbroker Ryuta Otsuka remembers waving a 10,000-yen note to hail a taxi after evenings sipping champagne at high-end Tokyo nightclubs.

China's shares finished higher on Tuesday as its central bank announced a record cut to a benchmark lending rate in a bid to boost its struggling economy.

China's new year holiday spending last week surged past pre-pandemic levels, official figures showed, a rare bright spot for an economy struggling with sluggish consumption and deflation.

Britain is in recession, official data showed Thursday, dealing another blow to embattled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose Conservative party is forecast to lose a general election expected this year.

Once forecast to become the world's biggest economy, Japan slipped below Germany last year to fourth place, official data showed Thursday, although India is projected to leapfrog both later this decade.

Chinese consumer prices fell in January at their quickest rate in more than 14 years, data showed Thursday, piling pressure on the government for more aggressive moves to revive the country's battered economy.

The strategically-placed Indian Ocean nation of the Maldives, which has borrowed heavily from China and shifted allegiance from India, is at high risk of "debt distress," the IMF warned Wednesday.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expressed concern Tuesday about the commercial real estate sector in the current environment of higher interest rates -- but added that the overall situation should be "manageable."

The OECD raised its 2024 world economic growth forecast Monday but warned that the Middle East conflict posed a risk, with disruptions in Red Sea shipping threatening to increase consumer prices.

Turkey's annual inflation rate stayed stable in January at nearly 65 percent, but month-on-month consumer price increases jumped sharply following a huge minimum wage hike, official data showed Monday.

The US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank (ECB) and others have held interest rates elevated in recent months in an attempt to bring inflation back down toward target, following a post-pandemic surge in prices.

The world's second-largest economy last year saw some of its slowest growth in decades, as a debt crisis in the property sector added to geopolitical tensions and weakening global demand.

Consumer prices slowed to 2.8 percent in January, from 2.9 percent in December, the EU's statistics agency said. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg and FactSet had forecast inflation to slow to 2.7 percent.

In the occupied West Bank, Hafeth Ghazawneh waits in quiet frustration for customers to visit his falafel stall, which has been deserted since the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.

China's economy last year grew at one of its slowest rates in more than three decades, official figures showed Wednesday, as it was battered by a crippling property crisis, sluggish consumption and global turmoil.

China's economy likely grew at its weakest annual rate for more than three decades in 2023, data is expected to show Wednesday, as it was battered by a crippling property crisis, sluggish consumption and global uncertainties.

AI will affect 60 percent of jobs in advanced economies, the International Monetary Fund's managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said in an interview in Washington, shortly before departing for the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Argentina's annual inflation surged beyond 200 percent in 2023, the statistics agency said Thursday, as the country grapples with an economic crisis new President Javier Milei has vowed to address by slashing state spending.

China's exports fell last year for the first time in seven years, data showed Friday, as tensions with the United States and a stuttering global economic recovery compound Beijing's struggles to kickstart growth at home.

Homelessness in rural England has risen by 40 percent in five years with many sleeping in the open air, tents or makeshift shelters, a British rural charity said on Tuesday.

Lining up, they receive some rice, dried beans and other basic foodstuffs, whose soaring prices have left millions in Nigeria facing a bleak Christmas.

Cecilia Rojas has scoured shops across greater Buenos Aires to find an affordable gift for her children this Christmas, which is set to be a gloomy affair as the country grapples with its worst economic crisis in decades.

Maria Mamani carries a fistful of new price stickers around a supermarket after Argentina's government slashed the value of the peso in half as part of "shock" therapy to the ailing economy.

Argentina devalued its currency by more than 50 percent Tuesday in a set of "shock" measures aimed at reviving a crumbling economy and tackling triple-digit inflation.

The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is having a severe impact on the Palestinian economy, the World Bank said Tuesday, adding that a sharp economic contraction is likely this year and next.

Turkey's annual inflation rate ticked up slightly in November, the state statistics agency said on Monday, showing further signs of levelling off following a series of sharp interest rate hikes.

Turkey's central bank on Thursday surprised the market with a larger-than-expected interest hike as it ramped up its fight against inflation and efforts to support the slumping lira.

The retail sector's efforts to entice holiday gift purchases builds to a crescendo this weekend with the annual "Black Friday" shopping day followed by the newer "Cyber Monday."

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced a stimulus package worth more than $100 billion on Thursday as he tries to ease the pressure from inflation and rescue his premiership with his poll ratings at a record low.