Oil prices settled up more than $2 a barrel on Friday as attention turned to next week’s OPEC+ meeting and dimming expectations that the producer group will imminently boost supply.

Indonesia has blocked search engine website Yahoo, payments firm Paypal and several gaming websites due to failure to comply with licensing rules, an official said on Saturday, sparking a backlash in social media.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said this week he’s looking for compelling signs that inflation is cooling before the US central bank will let up on what’s so far been its most aggressive set of interest rate hikes in decades.

The assets and risks of China’s “shadow” banking sector have declined significantly through continuous regulation, the state-run Securities Times on Saturday quoted a top regulator as saying.

British businesses are cutting ties with China due to concerns about political tensions, a shift that is likely to stoke inflationary pressures, the head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said in an interview published on Saturday.

Europe’s economy is proving surprisingly resilient against soaring energy and food prices, data showed Friday, as tourism boosted France and Spain but export powerhouse Germany stalled, keeping recession fears alive.

The two largest US oil companies, Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp, posted record revenue on Friday, bolstered by surging crude oil and natural gas prices and following similar results for European giants a day earlier.

Prices for gas, food and rent are soaring. The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates to the highest level since 2018. The US economy has shrunk for two straight quarters.

Sharply higher interest rates, red-hot inflation and a prolonged energy crisis are leading to conviction that the world economy is headed inexorably towards recession.

Germany is set to impose a levy on all gas consumers from October 1 aimed at helping suppliers grappling with soaring gas import prices, a draft law showed on Thursday.

A Russian court on Thursday fined Meta Platforms Inc’s WhatsApp messenger and Snapchat owner Snap Inc for an alleged refusal to store the data of Russian users domestically, news agencies reported.

Investors are gauging whether the US Federal Reserve has reached the peak of its aggressiveness in hiking rates, with some saying they’re ready to up risky positions again.

German inflation edged up unexpectedly in July after a further reduction in gas flows from Russia prompted concerns of even higher energy bills, data showed on Thursday.

The monsoon, which accounts for about 75 per cent of India’s annual rainfall, is the lifeblood of its nearly $3 trillion agriculture-dependent economy.

Oil rose by $1 a barrel on Wednesday as a report of lower inventories in the United States and cuts in Russian gas flows to Europe offset concern about weaker demand and a looming US interest rate hike.

Ukraine aims to strike a deal for a $15-$20 billion programme with the International Monetary Fund before year-end to help shore up its war-torn economy, the country’s central bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko told Reuters.

The global economy is mired in a serious slowdown, with some key economies at high risk of recession and only sparse meaningful cooling in inflation likely over the coming year, according to Reuters polls of hundreds of economists worldwide.

Russia delivered less gas to Europe on Wednesday in a further escalation of an energy stand-off between Moscow and the European Union that will make it harder, and costlier, for the bloc to fill up storage ahead of the winter.

Pakistan’s two leading car assemblers, Toyota and Suzuki, plan partial plant shutdowns next month due to unavailability of raw material amid import restrictions and exchange rate volatility, officials at both companies said on Wednesday.

The Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) today suggested the central bank should consider China’s Renminbi (RMB) as a second currency for international trading, especially for importing raw materials from China.