WITH petroleum investment and the manufacturing sector sagging and the stock market in free fall, many Americans are wondering when they will begin to see the benefits of cheap oil.

CHINA will require foreign financial institutions in the country to hold yuan in reserve, the central bank said Monday as it seeks to stabilise the currency, which has been hit by capital flight.

Opec said Monday that it expects a "rebalancing process" to begin in 2016 as the sharp fall in the oil price causes production from non-cartel competitors such as the US to fall after seven years of "phenomenal" growth.

German companies are trying not to let themselves be spooked by the economic slowdown in China, even if they concede they are currently seeing a drop in demand for their products there.

The stockmarket regulator yesterday allowed Bangladesh National Insurance Company to start its initial public offering subscription on February 17 and continue it to February 25.

Indian steel giant Tata Steel said Monday it will cut 1,050 more jobs in Britain following thousands of cuts in the industry announced last year, blaming China for plunging steel prices.

The richest one percent of the world's population now own more than the rest of us combined, aid group Oxfam says, on the eve of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.

Greek unions on Friday announced a general strike against a planned overhaul of the country's ailing pensions system.

European fruit growers could be able to export apples and pears to the United States later this year, the EU executive said on Saturday, following the publication of new US rules.

China's bank lending declined sharply in December from November, the central bank said on Friday, despite moves to keep the world's second largest economy from slowing further with looser monetary policy.

OIL prices plummeted to $29 a barrel on Friday on the likely resumption soon of Iranian oil exports into an already flooded market as international sanctions against Iran are lifted, dragging equity indices around the world sharply lower.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) totalled more than $10 trillion in 2015 and the economy grew by around 7 percent, with the services sector accounting for half of GDP, Premier Li Keqiang said on Saturday.

Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica SA has expressed interest in buying AT&T Inc's pay TV assets in Latin America, which could be valued at around $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Earnings from US banking giants Citigroup and Wells Fargo showed an increased drag from the oil rout that investors fear will worsen.

US industrial giant General Electric will sell its appliances business to China's Haier Group for $5.4 billion, it said Friday, in one of the largest Chinese acquisitions of an American firm yet.

US retail sales fell in December to cap the slowest year of growth since 2009, amid persistent downward pressure on prices, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Ukraine on Friday launched the first cargo train to China that will bypass Russia along a new "Silk Road" meant to counter the Kremlin's most stringent trade embargo on Kiev to date. "This is a historic event," Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Andriy Pyvovarskiy wrote on

India's government and the country's central bank will over the next few months add to banks' ability to lend, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday, addressing a conference on start-up businesses.

EU citizens would have a harder time finding jobs and the economy would suffer should Europe's internal passport-free zone collapse

The Russian government is looking to privatise a 19.5 percent stake in state oil giant Rosneft to ease a budget crunch as oil prices