Asian markets mostly fell Friday after data pointing to a still-strong US economy raised fresh concerns about inflation and dampened optimism that the Federal Reserve will slash interest rates as much as it expected this year.
The Swiss National Bank cut interest rates on Thursday -- the first to do so among the major central banks, saying the battle against inflation was working almost two years after launching its monetary tightening campaign.
The Bank of England is widely expected to keep its main interest rate at a 16-year high Thursday, rejecting a cut as inflation remains well above target despite recent slowing.
Asian markets mostly rose Wednesday as traders tracked another record day on Wall Street, with focus squarely on the Federal Reserve's policy meeting.
The Bank of Japan announced a seismic change in direction on Tuesday, hiking interest rates for the first time in 17 years.
The performance of China's economy in the first two months of 2024 was mixed, official figures showed Monday, with sluggish household consumption alongside increased industrial production reflecting an uneven recovery.
The US economy is not expected to see stagflation, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an interview broadcast Wednesday, adding that most forecasters expect inflation to cool as housing costs move lower.
China's exports sharply accelerated in the first two months of 2024, official figures showed Thursday, providing policymakers a bright spot as they battle to revive the world's second-largest economy.
China's economic troubles are far from over and leaders admit the country will face an uphill struggle in hitting its goals for 2024, piling on the pressure for stimulus and reforms that experts say are needed to reverse the malaise.
The European Central Bank is expected to freeze interest rates again this week, with officials wary of starting to cut before they see more evidence that recent falls in inflation will be sustained.
China's leadership is confident the economy will improve, an official said Monday, ahead of a key political meeting in which Beijing is expected to unveil one of its most pessimistic growth targets in years.
Minister of Economy Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri noted that more than 73% of the country's economy is now non-oil, marking a historic first for the country.
Japanese inflation slowed less than expected to two percent in January, data showed Tuesday, hitting the central bank's target and firming expectations of an end to its outlier negative rates policy.
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.
