The Group of Seven rich democracies will commit up to $5 billion to improve global food security, a senior US official said, as the group responds to worries in developing nations about the threat of hunger triggered by war in Ukraine.

Russia said Monday that two of its debt payments were blocked from reaching creditors, pushing the country closer to its first foreign default in a century due to sanctions over the Ukraine offensive.

G7 leaders on Tuesday condemned China’s  “non-transparent and market-distorting” international trade practices in an end-of-summit statement that hit out directly at Beijing for the first time.

France is working on energy contingency plans because of cuts to gas flows from Russia which have hit the European market but it has not yet had to put them into action, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday.

Britain is mulling action to protect its ailing steel industry that could set it on collision course with the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday.

Central banks must not let inflation become entrenched, with the threat of stagflation looming over the global economy, the Bank for International Settlements warned Sunday in its annual economic report.

Air traffic is booming this summer, but after European vacations are over will passenger demand hold up? The question was the focus of the annual congress of the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe in Rome this week, held at the cusp of the approaching peak season.

Consumers should start cutting back on their energy use immediately, the bosses of France’s three big energy companies urged Sunday, warning of social tensions next winter unless reserves are replenished.

Oil prices settled up by more than $3 a barrel on Friday, supported by tight supply, but they notched their second weekly decline on concern that rising interest rates could push the world economy into recession.

Leaders of the Group of Seven rich democracies are having “very constructive” discussions on a possible cap on Russian oil imports, a German government official said on Saturday shortly before the start of the annual three-day G7 summit.

The German business climate worsened in June, a key survey published Friday showed, as Europe’s largest economy faced up to a possible Russian gas stop.

Italy has managed to reduce its dependence on gas imported from Russia to 25 per cent from 40 per cent last year as it diversifies suppliers, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Friday.

Canadian inflation jumped to 7.7 per cent in May, marking the largest annual increase in prices for goods and services in almost four decades, the government statistical agency said Wednesday.

Prospects for a firm start on Wall Street helped European shares claw back from a new low for the year on Thursday as investors weighed the risk of hefty interest rate rises tipping economies into recession.

A retreat in oil prices continued on Thursday as investors reassessed the risks of recession and how fuel demand will be affected by rising interest rates.

Bangladesh yesterday edged closer to finalising a deal over buying 200,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia under a government-to-government contract in order to build up public food stocks to carry out various social safety net programmes.  

Brussels and NGOs expressed concerns Tuesday about several EU countries, including Germany, reverting to using coal for power generation as the fall-out from Russia’s war in Ukraine hits energy supplies.

British annual inflation has hit a fresh 40-year high, official data showed Wednesday, further eroding workers’ wages and pressuring the Bank of England to keep on raising interest rates.

Germany faces certain recession if already faltering Russian gas supplies completely stop, an industry body warned on Tuesday, as Sweden joined a growing list of European nations rolling out emergency plans to cope with a deepening energy supply crisis.

The United States is in talks with Canada and other allies to further restrict Moscow’s energy revenue by imposing a price cap on Russian oil, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday.