Zimbabwe on Wednesday gave foreign businesses until April 1 to comply with controversial equity laws that compel them to cede majority stakes to locals or risk closure.

The German economy, Europe's biggest, will likely slow down in the second quarter after showing steady growth in the year's first three months, the Bundesbank central bank said Monday.

Chinese authorities on Monday boosted support for margin trading, which fuelled a stunning stock market rally before government restrictions triggered a spectacular rout last year.

From ready-to-wear knits manufactured instantly to customised dresses produced on inkjet printers, Japan's apparel industry is turning to state-of-the-art technology in a bold bid to cut labour costs and secure its future.

Marriott International on Monday made a roaring comeback in its battle to build the world's biggest hotel group, winning Starwood Hotels's green light for an improved bid and pushing Chinese rival Anbang to the sidelines.

Priceline Group has agreed with Cuba to make Cuban hotel rooms available to US customers via subsidiary Booking.com, becoming the first US online travel agency to strike a deal with the island state, a Booking.com executive said.

Pakistan on Monday announced that foreign carmakers seeking to enter the market could import machinery for their plants duty-free, in an attempt to boost competition and cut prices for local drivers.

Ukraine's war-torn economy shrank by nearly 10 percent in 2015, but the downturn was still less severe than the government had feared, official data showed Monday.

France's central bank chief Francois Villeroy de Galhau said Monday that contested economy-boosting measures by the European Cental Bank had produced "tangible results", including tens of thousands of French jobs.

Leaving the European Union could cause a "serious shock" to Britain's economy, with the risk of losing almost one million jobs, according to a CBI business group study released Sunday.

Egypt said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia has offered $1.5 billion to help finance economic projects in the Sinai Peninsula, as Riyadh continues to bolster its ties with Cairo.

CONFRONTED with a plunge in its stock markets last year, China's central bank swiftly reached out to the US Federal Reserve, asking it to share its play book for dealing with Wall Street's "Black Monday" crash of 1987.

Singapore's DBS Group Holdings is seen leading the race to buy British bank Barclays' Hong Kong and Singapore private wealth units, valued at as much as $300 million, sources with knowledge of the situation said on Monday.

THE US government plans to temporarily lift export curbs it imposed on Chinese telecom equipment and smartphone maker ZTE Corp for alleged Iran sanctions violations, a senior Department of Commerce official said.

Oil prices rebounded in Asia Wednesday after a two-day sell-off fanned by concerns over planned talks between major producers to freeze output.

Opec members and key oil producers from outside the cartel will meet on April 17 in Doha in a bid to stabilise falling crude prices, Qatari energy minister Mohammed al-Sada said Wednesday.

Global economic growth did not translate into more harmful greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector last year, the IEA said on Wednesday, a strong indication that growth and increased pollution no longer go hand in hand.

Hisashi Aoto was not holding out much hope that his employer would give him a bumper pay rise this year as Japan's spring labour talks wrap up.

Women in Germany earn around one fifth less than men, a wider gap than the European average, but the shortfall is narrower in the east of the country, official data showed on Wednesday.

The doomsayers were 100 percent certain that the internet would be the death of travel agents.