The US central bank is flagging a turning point in monetary policy, as a Federal Reserve policymaker on Friday backed interest rate hikes in the “near term” but nodded to increasingly less certainty ahead.

Qatar's national budget for 2019 will show a forecast for a surplus, its Finance Minister Ali Shareef al-Emadi told a conference on Sunday.

All countries will lose in a global trade war, the head of the world's trade referee warned in a speech on Wednesday.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg questioned the business case for giving millions of outside software developers wide access to customer data before endorsing the practice in 2012, according to internal emails published on Wednesday.

Opec members and other oil-producing countries mulled cuts in output Thursday to prop up plunging prices, defying repeated calls by US President Donald Trump that they keep the taps open.

It's not shaping up as a merry Christmas for coal exporters to Asia as the region's top buyers, China and India, pull back from the recent trend of strong imports.

Analysts expect the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to support an economy that is losing momentum by leaving interest rates unchanged at a policy meeting on Wednesday, when just over a month ago most of them had predicted a hike.

France and Germany jointly agreed a scaled-back version of an EU digital tax Tuesday, that they hoped would break significant opposition to the plan amongst bloc partners.

Opec members and other oil-producing countries convene in Vienna this week to discuss lowering their output, as they scramble to buffer their earnings against plunging crude prices, while also coming under heavy US pressure to ensure that the commodity stays cheap.

Australia's central bank kept interest rates at a record-low on Tuesday as a drop in house prices accelerated.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Monday the Trump administration wants to end subsidies for electric cars and other items, including renewable energy sources.

EU antitrust regulators have asked Google's rivals if the internet search giant unfairly demotes local search competitors, according to a questionnaire seen by Reuters, a move which could lead to a fourth case against the Alphabet unit.

Tesla Inc met its production target of 1,000 Model 3 cars per day, automotive news website Electrek reported on Friday, citing Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk's email to employees.

Canada's economic growth slowed in the third quarter to 2.0 percent from 2.9 percent despite a boost in mining and petroleum refining as foreign demand pushed up prices, according to government data out Friday.

China's factory activity fizzled in November, official data showed Friday, in the latest sign that the world's second-largest economy is losing steam in the midst of a US trade war.

Physical gold demand in the world's second biggest bullion consumer India got a fillip this week from a slide in local rates due to gains in the rupee, while buying was steady in other top Asian hubs.

Pakistan's rupee plunged almost five percent to a record low Friday after what appeared to be a sixth devaluation by the central bank in the past year as the country struggles with an acute balance of payment crisis.

Eurozone inflation slowed in November, official data showed on Friday, lending support to rising fears that economic activity in Europe is cooling.

Economists and investors have been scratching their heads this week over signals from the Federal Reserve, which left the future of US monetary policy open to broadly divergent interpretations.

Microsoft Corp's stock market value closed above Apple Inc's for the first time in eight years on Friday as the Windows maker benefited from growth in cloud computing while Apple was hit by investor concern about iPhone demand.