Millions of migrant workers streaming back to China's industrial heartland after the long lunar New Year break are facing an uncertain future, as smaller factories in particular struggle to cope with anaemic orders and rising inventories.

French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said Monday he was confident his country can ride out global growth concerns and hit Paris' target of a 1.5 percent rise in 2016.

US coffee giant Starbucks announced Monday that it is preparing to conquer the spiritual home of coffee with plans to open its first branch in Italy.

Japan on Monday posted its first factory output expansion in three months, official data showed, offering some rare good news after a string of weak figures threw cold water on recovery hopes.

In the Hindu Kush mountains craftswomen painstakingly stitch flowing scarves, skilled artisans who were unable to sell their products

The world's economic powerhouses are poorly equipped to deal with the next emergency. That's the main lesson from the latest confab

Prices in the euro zone fell in February, falling short of already depressed expectations and virtually ensuring another round of policy easing from the European Central Bank on March 10.

China said on Monday it expects to lay off 1.8 million workers in the coal and steel industries, or about 15 percent of the workforce, as part of efforts to reduce industrial overcapacity, but no timeframe was given.

Online retailer Amazon is set to enter the British fresh food market after striking a supply deal with supermarket Morrisons, potentially ramping up competition in the already cut-throat sector.

Qatar's balance of trade fell almost 60 per cent in the year to January, official figures released on Saturday showed, as the Gulf country grapples with a slump in global energy prices.

Amazon.com Inc has begun surveying UK customers about their use of restaurant delivery services, in what analysts said was likely the first step in an international expansion of a business it rolled out in the United States last September.

Tunisia should adjust its development model to counter economic slowdown and build "inclusive growth", the International Monetary Fund's country representative said, ahead of an expected line of IMF credit.

Investors worried about the risk of a new global recession are hoping that data over the coming week will show that some momentum remains in the world economy, eight years into its slow recovery from the financial crisis.

Thailand's prime minister on Wed-nesday told farmers to cultivate less rice to help the country manage its intensifying water crisis, as experts called this year's drought the worst in decades.

Indian conglomerate Tata Sons, part-owner of airline Vistara, said on Wednesday that a rule restricting new carriers from flying overseas should be scrapped because it gives an unfair advantage to foreign airlines that now dominate international air travel.

Saudi inflation soared to a five-year high in January after the kingdom made unprecedented cuts to public subsidies and raised fuel prices, a research report said Wednesday.

Asia's oil markets are being upended as India's and China's refiners overtake once-dominant buyers like Japan and challenge the United States as the world's biggest consumer.

THE German economy is "in good shape overall," the head of the country's central bank or Bundesbank said on Wednesday, waving away suggestions that clouds could be building over Europe's biggest economy.

SOUTH Africa's finance minister on Wednesday hiked taxes and targeted what he called wasteful and corrupt government spending in a "crisis" budget aimed at staving off a ratings downgrade to junk status.

CHINA still owns the world's largest currency reserves, but it has been burning through them at such a pace that some think Beijing might soon have to allow a sharp fall in the yuan or back-pedal on liberalisation and tighten its capital controls.