SOUTH Africa's finance minister on Wednesday hiked taxes and targeted what he called wasteful and corrupt government spending in a "crisis" budget aimed at staving off a ratings downgrade to junk status.

CHINA still owns the world's largest currency reserves, but it has been burning through them at such a pace that some think Beijing might soon have to allow a sharp fall in the yuan or back-pedal on liberalisation and tighten its capital controls.

THE legal showdown between Apple Inc and US law enforcement over encryption, no matter the outcome, will likely accelerate tech company efforts to engineer safeguards against government intrusion, tech industry executives say.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday announced a multi-million-dollar aid package for the country's struggling tourism industry which has been hit by a crisis with Russia and security concerns.

The International Monetary Fund chief urged on Monday oil-exporting Gulf countries to introduce taxes, warning that low crude prices are likely to stay for an "extended period".

Top negotiators on a huge transatlantic trade treaty between the EU and US opened new talks on Monday with the aim to tackle one of the deal's most controversial aspects.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics Inc unveiled their latest smartphones at the Mobile World Congress industry show in Barcelona on Sunday, seeking to buck the slowdown in industry growth.

A $16 billion pay rise for India's public servants and costly food and farm programmes could force the country's finance minister to cut capital spending in its annual budget, officials and economists say.

So far, the most visible impact of lower oil prices on GCC banks has been a tightening in liquidity due to significantly reduced deposit inflows from government and government-related entities.

GLOBAL banking giant HSBC on Monday reported a shock pre-tax loss in the last quarter of 2015 with results for the year missing analysts' expectations, as it grapples with "seismic shifts" in the world economy.

A new stock market regulator chief could give China's beleaguered shares a short-term lift, but analysts say Liu Shiyu faces the same old problems as his ousted predecessor: shattered market confidence and the need for sweeping reforms.

Ending Europe's open-borders Schengen agreement would cost EU economies at least 470 billion euros ($520 billion) over a decade, according to a German study published Monday.

Mobile equipment maker Nokia sees the shift to the next generation of 5G wireless networks kicking off well ahead of 2020, the year when many in the industry consider mass-market upgrades will begin, its chief executive said on Sunday.

Sharp Corp plans to choose between rival rescue offers as soon as Thursday, as a favoured bid from Taiwan's Foxconn continues to be challenged by a Japanese state-backed investment fund, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Here's another use for the smartphone as it invades daily life: in place of your debit card at your bank cash machine.

African leaders and bankers vowed at an economic summit in Egypt Saturday to push for trade and investments on the continent despite the growing threat of "terrorism" in the region.

General Motors Co will reconsider plans for new investment in Brazil if the economic and political situation does not improve, the company's president Dan Ammann said in an interview published on Sunday.

Six officials of Chinese megabank ICBC have been placed in detention by Spanish authorities on suspicion of laundering tens of millions of euros, judicial sources said on Saturday.

With his rickety bicycle and sackcloth mail bag, 62-year-old Indian postman Chet Ram does not look like a worker at the vanguard of an e-commerce revolution delivering everything from mobile phones to cow manure.

Just seven months ago, Sweden's Handelsbanken was worth almost $20 billion less than Deutsche Bank. This month, it eclipsed Germany's flagship lender.