The French economy flatlined in the first quarter as households reduced their consumption due to rising inflation and the war in Ukraine, the national statistics agency said Friday.

Elon Musk told banks that agreed to help fund his acquisition of Twitter that he would crack down on executive and board pay to slash costs while monetising tweets, according to people familiar with the matter.

US economic growth likely slowed sharply in the first quarter as a wave of Covid-19 cases curbed activity, but retained sufficient underlying strength to keep the expansion on track amid headwinds from soaring inflation and rising interest rates.

The global streak of high inflation is far from over and aggressive monetary policy tightening will fall short in taming price pressures to mandated levels as broken supply chains are unlikely to mend anytime soon, Reuters polls showed.

Indonesia began imposing a complete ban on palm oil exports Thursday, as the world’s largest producer of the commodity risked destabilising a global vegetable oil market already hitting peak prices.

A surge in eurozone consumer prices, propelled even higher by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is “very close” to reaching its peak, European Central Bank vice-president Luis de Guindos said Thursday.

Indonesia should be able to tackle its cooking oil shortage in the next few weeks and lift an export ban on palm oil and its refined products in May, an industry body said on Thursday, a day after a last-minute policy U-turn sparked more alarm for markets.

Since going public in 2013, Twitter has only occasionally turned a profit, even if it has a commanding role in politics and culture worldwide.

The World Bank has agreed to provide Sri Lanka with $600 million in financial assistance to help meet payment requirements for essential imports, the Sri Lankan president’s media division said in a statement on Tuesday.

Climate change could see 4 per cent of global annual economic output lost by 2050 and hit many poorer parts of the world disproportionately hard, a new study of 135 countries has estimated.

The war in Ukraine has dealt a major shock to commodity markets, altering global patterns of trade, production, and consumption in ways that will keep prices at historically high levels through the end of 2024, according to the World Bank’s latest Commodity Markets Outlook report.

World oil prices sank more than five percent Monday on fears that China’s worsening Covid outbreak could slam demand from the major energy consumer.

Germany will take on an additional 39.2 billion euros ($42.1 billion) of debt in 2022 to counter the economic impact of the war in Ukraine, sources in the finance ministry said Monday.

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka announced Tuesday it would sell long-term visas to attract desperately needed foreign currency after the island nation ran out of dollars to pay for food and fuel.

Energy prices have surged since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, along with other commodities, are likely to remain at  “historically high” levels through 2024, endangering economic growth, the World Bank warned Tuesday.

Indonesia is prepared to widen its ban on exports of refined palm olein if it faces domestic shortages of derivatives used in the production of cooking oil, according to details presented at a meeting between government and industry officials.

Europe must act fast to secure supplies of crucial metals required for a green energy transition and its best bet is to recycle, a report said Monday.

Pakistan has sought an increase in the size and duration of its $6 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, the country’s Finance Minister, Miftah Ismail, said on Monday.

The European Union (EU) and India agreed on Monday to set up a trade and technology council to step up cooperation, as the bloc’s chief held talks with officials in New Delhi who have seen a flurry of top visits since the start of the Ukraine war.

The Russian rouble opened stronger on Monday, firming past 74 against the dollar, helped by tax payments that companies are due to make this week and as the market looked ahead to a central bank rate decision on Friday.