Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will have a heavy impact on the German economy, cutting its 2022 growth forecast by almost half to 2.1 percent, economic institute IfW said Thursday.

The United States and Britain are ramping up pressure on Saudi Arabia to pump more oil and join efforts to isolate Russia, while Riyadh has shown little readiness to respond and has revived a threat to ditch dollars in its oil sales to China.

Britain said Wednesday it will hold a series of talks with the United States, as it seeks to pin down a long-awaited trade deal with the world’s biggest economy after Brexit.

The war in Ukraine and the fallout from soaring energy prices and sanctions against Russia will force Germany to take on more debt than expected this year, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said Wednesday.

Hong Kong led strong gains in Asian stock markets on Thursday, buoyed by signs of progress in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and by expectations of more support for China’s wobbly economy.

Rising costs for gasoline caused US retail sales to grow in February, according to government data released Wednesday, though the expansion was slightly below expectations.

The economic cost of Russia’s assault on Ukraine was fully exposed on Wednesday as Vladimir Putin’s sanctions-ravaged government teetered on the brink of its first international debt default since the Bolshevik revolution.

Major US carriers lifted their revenue forecasts Tuesday as a faster-than-expected travel recovery from the latest Covid-19 wave mitigates the drag from higher jet fuel costs.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday will close the door on its ultra-easy pandemic-era monetary policy and step up the fight against stubbornly high inflation with the first in what is likely to be a series of interest rate hikes this year.

India’s state-owned Oil Corporation (IOC) has made a contract to buy three million barrels of crude oil Russia offered at a steep discount on prevailing international rates in the first purchase since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia is in active talks with Beijing to price part of its oil shipments in yuan, people familiar with the situation said – a move that could erode the US dollar's dominance in the global petroleum market, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The government in Kyiv continues to function, the banking system is stable and debt payments are viable in the short term, but the Russian invasion could plunge Ukraine into a devastating recession, the IMF said Monday.

The European Union formally approved on Tuesday a new barrage of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which include bans on investments in the Russian energy sector, luxury goods exports and imports of steel products from Russia.

Oil prices tumbled to their lowest levels in almost three weeks on Tuesday as supply disruption fears eased and as surging Covid-19 cases in China spurred demand concerns.

Wild swings in asset prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are prompting some investors to pare risk in their portfolios, fearing that the type of volatility seen in commodities in recent weeks could hit other markets.

Russia on Monday temporarily banned grain exports to ex-Soviet countries and most sugar exports, but a senior minister said it would keep on providing special export licences to traders within its current quota.

Russia is gradually resuming wheat exports from its Black Sea ports while navigation in the Azov Sea remains restricted, analysts said on Monday. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, calling its actions a  “special military operation”.

An IMF delegation was in Sri Lanka Monday for talks on the island’s worsening economic crisis, with the public suffering through months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.

German Ambassador to Bangladesh Achim Troster has advised Bangladeshi companies to prepare for challenges that may arise from 2023 when a German law comes into effect for enhanced human rights protection in supply chains.

Asian markets mostly fell Monday as traders track developments in the Ukraine war and diplomatic efforts to bring the crisis to an end while Hong Kong took a pounding after China placed Shenzhen into lockdown, fuelling a rout in the tech sector.