Japan's engineering giant Toshiba announced plans Thursday to slash 7,000 jobs and liquidate a unit building a UK nuclear power plant, leaving its fate in doubt.

India's finance minister said on Thursday that Mastercard and Visa were losing market share to domestic payments networks, months after Mastercard complained to the US government that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was using nationalism to promote a local rival.

No US economists believe the Federal Reserve will raise the all-important benchmark interest rate on Thursday but they are watching closely for any signals about how concerned the central bankers are about rising prices.

Germany said Thursday its trade surplus narrowed in September compared to a month earlier, with exports falling more than imports at a time of high tensions in global commerce.

Amazon and its rival in India, the Walmart-owned Flipkart, did not break regulations through their selection of merchants and brands, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said in a ruling late on Tuesday.

German industrial production showed a slight gain in September following August's small recovery, official data showed Wednesday.

Higher long-term interest rates could help financial institutions by widening their margins, Bank of Japan board member Yukitoshi Funo said, signalling a rate hike could be a future option to ease pressure on banks' profits from prolonged policy easing.

The Pakistani finance minister's bullish comments declaring the end of an economic crisis have bolstered confidence ahead of crunch talks with the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday, but the country is still likely to need a bailout.

Higher prices, lending curbs and a move to online shopping are denting the cheer for Indian retailers at this year's Diwali Hindu festival, with lackluster sales for high-end items ranging from iPhones to cars and even gold.

World food prices fell 0.9 percent in October from the month before, reflecting lower values for meat, dairy and oils, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday.

A deal giving London, the world's largest centre of international finance, basic access to European Union financial markets after Brexit is nearly done, a British official said.

A rift between India's government and central bank threatens to derail Asia's third-largest economy as it grapples with a perfect storm of problems including a plummeting rupee and cripplingly high fuel prices, analysts warn.

President Xi Jinping sought to reassure Chinese entrepreneurs at a meeting Thursday with promises to prop up private firms with lower taxes and more funding, as he acknowledged uncertainty in China's economy.

The economic impact of the intensifying trade war between Washington and Beijing appeared to deepen last month with factory activity and export orders weakening across Asia, but analysts warned the worst was yet to come.

There will be little respite for the bruised Indian rupee over the coming year, depressed by an escalating US-China trade war and rising domestic political risks ahead of a general election, a Reuters poll showed.

Oilseed traders in China on Monday played down the potential impact on soy consumption of new government guidelines to lower the protein content of animal feed, saying that rising soymeal and soybean prices would be a far bigger curb on appetite.

Daimler AG does not rule out cooperating with Tesla Inc in future even though the German luxury car producer sold its stake in the US electric vehicles company, Daimler's chief executive told a Polish newspaper.

IBM Corp said on Sunday it had agreed to acquire US software company Red Hat Inc for $34 billion, including debt, as it seeks to diversify its technology hardware and consulting business into higher-margin products and services.

Reliance Industries, currently India's second most valuable listed company, got rich by trading fuel across Asia, Africa and Europe while effectively ignoring its home market.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's new CEO is tired of being No. 3 in US pickup truck sales.