India has approved interest-free loans for cash-strapped sugar mills to help them pay nearly 30 percent of the record $3.3 billion they owe cane farmers, many of whom are struggling with huge debts as the first country-wide drought in six years looms.

China's auto sales fell slightly on a year-on-year basis in May, an industry group said Wednesday, as a slowing economy prompts manufacturers to cut prices and trim production in the world's largest car market.

Standard Chartered's new chief executive Bill Winters wants the Asia-focused bank needed to strengthen its finances, simplify and restructure to achieve better returns, he said in a letter to staff on his first day in charge.

European companies are losing confidence in China's economy, a lobby group survey said on Wednesday, with many firms planning to lay off staff as Beijing struggles to boost growth and embarks in an anti-monopoly drive.

Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd does not want to fight for US market share but instead hopes to help small US businesses sell more goods in China, Executive Chairman Jack Ma said.

Overseas markets bring in more advertising revenue than the United States for Facebook Inc, amounting to 51 percent of global ad sales in the first quarter, with growth in Asia the fastest in the world at 57 percent, company executives told Reuters.

Britain's finance minister George Osborne will use next month's post-election budget to push ahead with new laws to force governments to run a surplus.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is preparing to launch the country's biggest overhaul of labour laws since independence in a bid to create millions of manufacturing jobs, at the risk of stirring up a political backlash that could block other critical reforms.

Foreigners working in the energy-rich Arab states of the Gulf sent more than $100 billion in remittances to their home countries last year, an economic report showed Tuesday.

As fuel prices drop and more planes fly filled to capacity, North America is leading the airline industry in profits while much of the world still struggles, officials said Monday.

Chinese inflation fell to 1.2 percent in May, data showed Tuesday, the latest sign that growth in the world's number two economy is stalling and suggesting more monetary easing may be on the way.

Apple is making its play to shake up online music with a subscription service combining on-demand songs, streamed playlists and a social stage for musicians.

BRITAIN'S regulators will unveil plans on Wednesday that aim to clean up behaviour in the financial markets, where banks have been fined billions of pounds for trying to rig currencies and interest rate benchmarks.

The Sahara Group of jailed Indian tycoon Subrata Roy said Monday it had reached a deal with Britain's billionaire Reuben brothers to avert the sale of three luxury hotels overseas.

GREECE and the European Union traded barbs Sunday over Brussels' latest demands for economic reforms in Athens, with EU commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker accusing Greece's premier of misrepresenting the proposals that Athens has termed "absurd".

UKRAINE'S finance minister said Sunday her potential failure to reach an elusive debt restructuring deal with private lenders should not keep the IMF from approving an essential new payment for Kiev when its board meets later this month.

Germany's trade surplus widened in April from the previous month as exports grew by 1.9 percent, official data showed on Monday.

Chinese imports fell for a seventh straight month in May while exports also sank, according to official data Monday, as the world's second biggest economy shows protracted weakness despite government easing measures.

EUROPEAN Central Bank president Mario Draghi said Wednesday that the ECB wanted Greece to remain in the single currency, but that a

Growth in Britain's service sector suffered its steepest slowdown in nearly four years in May, according to a survey that suggested the economy might not recover as quickly as hoped after stumbling in early 2015.