China cut its one-year benchmark lending rate on Monday as authorities seek to ramp up efforts to stimulate credit demand, but surprised markets by keeping the five-year rate unchanged amid broader concerns about a rapidly weakening currency.

Oil prices rose on Monday as global supply is tightening with lower exports from Saudi Arabia and Russia, offsetting nagging concerns about global demand growth amid high interest rates.

Russia remained China’s largest crude supplier in July, Chinese government data showed on Sunday, even as Russian shipments fall from all-time highs on narrower discounts and rising domestic demand crimps Russian exports.

British retail sales fell more than expected in July, official data showed Friday, with poor weather blamed for the setback as the country tries to revive its flagging economy.

The dollar was flat on Friday but set for a fifth consecutive week of gains in its longest winning streak for 15 months, buoyed by demand for safer assets on worries over China’s economy and bets that US interest rates will stay high.

China’s securities regulator unveiled a package of measures on Friday aimed at reviving a sinking stock market, but investors said they would do little to boost confidence if the economy remains sluggish.

Bangladesh released two varieties of a genetically modified (GM) cotton for domestic cultivation, aiming to increase yields and reduce import dependence. 

Japan’s consumer price inflation eased to 3.1 percent year on year in July, in line with market expectations, government data showed Friday.

Oil prices rose about 1 percent on Friday on signs of slowing US output, but both crude benchmarks also ended their longest weekly rally of 2023 on mounting concerns about global demand growth.

India plans to hold bilateral free trade talks with the United Kingdom, the European Union and Canada and discuss bilateral trade issues with the Russian delegation on the sidelines of a G20 meeting next week, a top trade official said on Friday.

Walmart raised its full-year forecast on Thursday as it posted another quarter of solid results, grabbing market share in groceries and other staples against a backdrop of inflationary pressures.

Embattled Chinese property giant Evergrande Group filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States on Thursday, court documents showed, a measure that protects its US assets while it attempts to restructure.

China, the world’s top crude importer, is drawing on record inventories amassed earlier this year as refiners scale back purchases after Opec+ supply cuts drove global prices above $80 a barrel, traders and analysts said.

Asian refiners are on the hunt for crude oil to replace Kuwaiti supply as the Opec producer cuts exports by nearly a fifth to feed its huge new refinery, which is driving up prices for other sour crudes and likely to squeeze profit margins.

Several Chinese manufacturers of solar panels have been shipping their products through third countries including Thailand and Vietnam to circumvent US tariffs, the Commerce Department announced Friday.

India today announced the imposition of 40 percent duty on the export of onions till December 31, in a move to tame escalating prices in the domestic market

With China at risk of tipping into prolonged stagnation and a spiralling property crisis threatening financial stability, there is growing unease over why its leaders are not rushing to revive the world’s second-largest economy.

The Russian rouble strengthened to 93 against the dollar on Thursday, in a volatile week filled with speculation over how the authorities might stabilise the currency after a 350-basis-point rate hike appeared to have only a limited effect.

Far from the recession forecasts of earlier this year, US economic growth may actually be accelerating in the second half of 2023 - upending bond and stock markets scrambling to reprice long-term inflation and interest rate assumptions.

Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports fell for a third straight month in June to their lowest since September 2021, data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Wednesday, with big Asian buyers favouring cheaper Russian oil.