Strong American export business caused a large drop in the US trade deficit last month, even as imports also rose, according to government data released Tuesday.

New travel restrictions prompted by the Omicron coronavirus variant have set back the nascent recovery in international flights, creating delays and headaches in some regions, according to airline and airport officials.

Saudi Arabia signed agreements with Oman potentially valued at $30 billion, state media said Tuesday, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began a tour of Gulf Arab countries, including former rival Qatar.

The US Treasury is moving to combat corruption, money laundering and tax evasion by shell companies by requiring firms disclose their ownership, according to proposed rules announced Tuesday.

Ford Motor Co. is investing $900 million to upgrade factories in Thailand that build its Ranger pickup truck and Everest SUV, its largest-ever investment in the country.

Afghanistan’s currency hit 100 to the US dollar Tuesday, losing five percent of its value in one day in a panic triggered by fears that one of the country’s biggest banks could collapse, traders said.

South Africa’s economy shrank for the first time in a year in the third quarter as the country was hit by riots and tighter Covid restrictions, official statistics showed Tuesday.

Saudi Aramco said it has signed a $15.5 billion lease and leaseback deal for its gas pipeline network with a consortium led by BlackRock Real Assets and Hassana Investment Company in its second major infrastructure deal this year.

China on Monday announced a reserve ratio cut and renewed support for the housing market as another Chinese property developer said it had defaulted on a major bond repayment.

China has an important part to play in the global economy as it recovers from Covid-19, but its growth is slowing, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Monday.

President Joe Biden’s administration will announce an anti-corruption strategy meant to tackle two major vehicles for money laundering in the United States -- real estate transactions and shell companies.

Export growth in China lost some steam in November as holiday demand from abroad faded, official data showed Tuesday, but demand for overseas fuel pushed up imports to spike above expectations.

Another Chinese property developer said Monday it had defaulted on a major bond repayment, citing liquidity problems amid a government crackdown on the debt-laden sector.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed on Monday to ensure worker wage hikes to protect the economy from rising global inflation, while strengthening the country’s defences as it deals with an assertive China and unpredictable North Korea.

Oil climbed by $2 a barrel towards $72 on Monday on hopes the Omicron coronavirus variant would have a less damaging economic impact if its symptoms proved mostly mild and as the prospect of an imminent rise in Iranian oil exports receded.

China’s central bank said on Monday it would cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves, its second such move this year, releasing 1.2 trillion yuan ($188.24 billion) in long-term liquidity to bolster slowing economic growth.

Bitcoin tumbled almost 5 per cent on Monday as the start of the week offered little respite to the world’s largest cryptocurrency after a bruising weekend where at one point it lost over a fifth of its value.

After lurching from deadline to deadline, China Evergrande Group is again on the brink of default, with pessimistic comments from the property developer raising expectations of direct state involvement and a managed debt restructuring.

Weaker demand from abroad drove a much bigger than expected drop in German industrial orders, including cars, in October, data showed on Monday, further clouding the growth outlook for manufacturers in Europe’s largest economy.

The United Nations Development Programme aims to almost triple its plastic waste management to 100 cities in India by 2024, A UNDP executive said, to combat the damaging effects of plastic pollution.