US consumers were in the mood to spend this holiday season, with retail sales soaring 8.5 per cent over last year, a study released Sunday showed.

China will stabilise corn production and expand soybean output in the new year to ensure grain security, the Communist Party’s People’s Daily quoted the agriculture minister as saying on Monday.

The climate crisis has put the end of oil onto the agenda, but achieving that is a colossal task given the world economy’s deep dependence on petroleum.

Sales of US military equipment to foreign governments fell 21 per cent to $138 billion in the latest fiscal year, the US State Department said on Wednesday, as the Biden administration shifts away from some of the more aggressive arms sales practices under former President Donald Trump.

Three years of democracy protests followed by a pandemic have devastated Hong Kong retailers who had grown used to relying on cash from mainland Chinese tourists.

Afghan businessman Shoaib Barak is struggling to pay his workers and suppliers, unable to access funds from a banking system crippled by the freezing of the nation’s overseas assets.

Investors are closely watching the latest news on the rapidly spreading Omicron variant for signs of how much the virus could impact the U.S. economy and earnings as the market heads into what has historically been a strong time of year for equities.

China’s central bank said on Saturday it will safeguard the legal rights of home buyers and better satisfy their reasonable living needs, vowing to promote healthy development of the country’s real estate market.

The UK government on Friday announced it is extending a temporary visa scheme for foreign seasonal workers until the end of 2024, while it will gradually reduce the quota from 2023.

Most stock markets in the Gulf were subdued on Sunday, with coronavirus infections across the region rising again after months of low or falling figures.

The world's economic output will exceed $100 trillion for the first time next year and it will take China a little longer than previously thought to overtake the United States as the No.1 economy, a report showed on Sunday.

Japan’s core consumer prices rose 0.5 per cent year-on-year in November, the third monthly increase after two modest hikes of 0.1 per cent driven partly by higher fuel prices, government data showed Friday.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits held below pre-pandemic levels last week as the labor market tightens, while consumer spending increased solidly, putting the economy on track for a strong finish to 2021.

Profit growth for US corporations is expected to slow next year after a gangbuster 2021, with rising inflation and a rapidly spreading Covid-19 variant adding to uncertainty as investors try to justify stock prices trading near record highs.

China’s top real estate regulator vowed to resolutely tackle risks stemming from overdue delivery of residential properties by some top developers in a bid to maintain social stability, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.

Turkey’s lira closed out its strongest week on record on Friday, spiking more than 50 per cent with the support of billions of dollars of state-backed market interventions and a promise that the government would cover FX losses on certain deposits.

You might be tempted to pop corks if you’ve invested in vintage champagne this year - the most coveted bottles have outperformed all major financial market assets, from Big Tech to bitcoin.

China’s securities watchdog on Friday proposed tightening rules governing Chinese companies listing abroad, which it said would improve oversight while allowing them to continue to do so, the latest in a spate of regulatory moves by Beijing in 2021.

Indians are crowding markets and taking packed flights to holiday destinations again despite calls from authorities urging restraint and caution amid rising cases of the rapidly-spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Britain’s luxury department store chain Selfridges, famed for its flagship store on London’s Oxford Street, was snapped up Friday by a Thai-Austrian alliance for £4.0 billion in a Christmas Eve deal that will create a global giant.