The Bank of Japan revised down its annual growth forecast on Thursday and maintained its ultra-loose monetary policy as the pandemic continues to weigh on the world’s third-largest economy.

Trade relations between Bangladesh and South Korea have not progressed much in the past decade although significant achievements were made prior to it, said the East Asian nation’s ambassador to Bangladesh yesterday.

Bangladesh has been unable to develop its halal business outreach as the industry’s limited infrastructure makes it difficult to fully utilise the potential of Middle Eastern markets, speakers said at a webinar yesterday.

Short-dated euro zone bond yields jumped and long-term inflation expectations were at a new seven-year high on Thursday, putting pressure on European Central Bank officials to address the issue of rising inflation when they meet later in the day.

Reuters, Shanghai

Spanish consumer prices rose at their fastest pace since 1992 in October on the back of higher energy prices, official data showed Thursday.

British finance minister Rishi Sunak overhauled business rates on Wednesday, cutting the rate for the pandemic-hit retail and hospitality sector, halting a planned annual increase and incentivising green property investments.

Chinese authorities have told Evergrande founder Xu Jiayin, once the country’s richest man, to use his personal wealth to alleviate the embattled company’s debt crisis, according to media reports.

US consumer confidence unexpectedly rose in October as concerns about high inflation were offset by improving labor market prospects, suggesting economic growth was picking up after a turbulent third quarter.

Google’s parent company Alphabet announced profits Tuesday that jumped to $18.9 billion, even as the online colossus faces increased regulatory pressure and shifting of the lockdown lifestyles that have so benefited Big Tech.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on jobs has been harder than previously expected, and a worrying two-speed recovery is emerging between richer and poorer nations, the UN’s International Labour Organization warned Wednesday.

Shares around the world gained on Tuesday, with upbeat corporate earnings buoying European shares, though investor concerns lingered over supply chain problems sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Labor shortages may be the most intractable of the cost risks that US companies faced in the latest quarter, and as the earnings season moves into its peak there are signs the problem will persist, some strategists say.

Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday but remained near multi-year highs, supported by a global supply shortage and strong demand in the United States, the world’s biggest consumer.

The US government is once again nearing the limit on how much debt it can take on, a familiar deadline that will force the country’s political elite into high-stakes negotiations over averting a default.

Facebook announced over US$9 billion in quarterly profits on Monday, hours after a US news collective published a deluge of withering reports arguing the company prioritises its growth over people’s safety.

Will the 1.5-degree Celsius target be alive by the COP26? This is the key question that has been floating around as we wait for the COP26, starting from October 31 in Glasgow, UK.

US Democrats are expected to unveil a tax plan on Monday that would seek to raise hundreds of billions of dollars from the country’s roughly 700 billionaires to help pay for expanding the social safety net and tackling climate change.

China is targeting an ambitious clean energy goal of reducing fossil fuel use to under 20 per cent by 2060, according to an official plan published by state media on Sunday.

Inflation in the United States, pushed upward by pandemic-related supply and labor problems, should return to more moderate levels in the second half of next year, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday.