New bank loans in China are expected to have picked up to a five-month high in June, a Reuters poll showed, as Beijing kept ample liquidity in the financial system to support the slowing economy and offset growing US trade pressure.

JAPAN has tightened curbs on exports of high-tech materials used in smartphone displays and chips to South Korea, upping the ante in a decades-old dispute with Seoul over South Koreans forced to work for Japanese firms during World War Two.

BRITISH Airways-owner IAG is facing a record $230 million fine for the theft of data from 500,000 customers from its website last year under tough new data-protection rules policed by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Indian farmers have planted 23.4 million hectares with summer crops, down 27 percent from this time a year ago, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, buffeted by patchy monsoon rains that slowed down sowing in the country.

China’s central bank could cut its benchmark policy rate for the first time in four years if the US Federal Reserve delivers a widely expected cut in late July, analysts say, as Chinese policymakers step up support for the slowing economy.

European finance ministers need to find a compromise candidate to replace Christine Lagarde as the head of the International Monetary Fund, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Saturday.

Domestic gold prices in India jumped to a record on Friday following an unexpected increase in import duty in the country’s budget, hitting demand and forcing dealers to offer the highest discount in nearly three years.

The Canadian economy lost 2,200 jobs in June and the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 5.5 percent as more people sought work, the government statistical agency reported on Friday.

German industrial companies sustained a sharp drop in incoming orders in May, largely as a result of falling demand from non-EU countries, data showed on Friday, raising fresh fears about the health of Europe’s biggest economy, analysts said.

Cruise, a US self-driving vehicle company majority-owned by General Motors Co, told Reuters on Friday that a US national security panel approved a $2.25 billion investment in the firm by Japan’s SoftBank Corp.

The British pound hit a six-month low on Friday, having lost more than 1% over the week against the dollar after poor economic data and a rise in expectations that the Bank of England will cut interest rates.

Egypt introduced its latest round of fuel subsidy cuts on Friday, raising domestic prices by between 16 percent and 30 percent to bring them into line with their real cost, as it nears the end of an IMF-backed economic reform programme.

US employers are hiring workers, but that is only making the Federal Reserve’s job harder.

The Indian government’s annual budget statement on Friday included measures aimed at improving the investment climate but lacked any direct steps to stimulate a sagging economy, adding to pressure on the central bank to provide more immediate help.

US and Chinese officials are working to schedule a top-level trade talks by telephone next week but a face-to-face encounter has not been scheduled yet, US officials said Friday.

Vodafone on Wednesday launched its 5G service in the UK, but without smartphones from controversial Chinese technology giant Huawei.

Growth in the crucial American services sector fell last month to its weakest pace in nearly two years as business activity, hiring and new orders all declined, a private survey showed Wednesday.

The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it had decided to lift a decades-old cap on foreign ownership and allow full foreign control of business ventures.

Authorities in southern India have started inspecting garment factories and spinning mills after a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation found workers were being given unlabelled pills for period pains to meet productivity targets.

Heading in to the G20 summit, Facebook is on notice from powerful regulators including the Fed chief that its ambitious plans for a global crypto-currency face piercing scrutiny.