Russia's central bank announced Wednesday it had halted its purchases of foreign currency on the back of a recent slump by the ruble.

Japan has been grappling with a severe butter shortage that critics say highlights a bigger problem with the country's protected agricultural sector, a key sticking point in high-profile trade talks this week in Hawaii.

TOURISTS and business travellers visiting Germany are often surprised when they reach to pay for their beer, metro tickets or even a large restaurant bill that their credit cards are not welcome.

European Union nations have until August 20 to suspend the sale of some 700 generic drugs made in India, the EU's executive confirmed on Monday.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, India's top-selling carmaker, said on Tuesday first-quarter net profit rose 56 percent helped by lower costs, favourable foreign exchange rates and higher sales, but still missed bullish analyst estimates.

The sharp decline in Russia's economy may have almost run its course, official data showed on Tuesday, slowed by a huge devaluation of the rouble and heavy government spending on anti-crisis measures.

India has decided to introduce an import duty of 10 percent on wheat after a gap of eight years, government sources said on Monday, after senior civil servants met to discuss ways to curb overseas purchases when domestic stocks are ample.

Germany's Volkswagen became the world's biggest-selling vehicle maker in the first half of the year, overtaking Toyota for the first time.

Britain's economy accelerated in the second quarter of 2015, helped by rebounding services activity and industrial output, official data showed on Tuesday.

A factory which allegedly made up to 41,000 fake Apple iPhones has been raided in China, with nine arrests.

The US auto safety watchdog, toughening its stance against manufacturer defects, announced on Sunday a record $105 million in fines

With the end game in sight to what could be the world's most ambitious trade deal, critics fear a controversial mechanism to protect investors will strengthen the hand of big business while eroding national sovereignty.

Japan's Canon said Monday that its net profit fell 20.5 percent in the first six months of the year as smartphones increasingly take a bite out of demand for digital cameras.

Loans to the private sector in the euro area, a gauge of economic health, increased slightly year-on-year in June, but only at the same pace as a month earlier, the European Central Bank said Monday.

A meeting of the US Federal Reserve and the first estimate of US second-quarter growth are likely to be this week's economic centerpieces with markets able for the first time in months to look beyond Greece's debt struggle.

The president of Mitsubishi Motors Corp said Japan, SouthEast Asia and Russia will become the automaker's principal production hubs after it calls time on making cars in the United States later this year because of dwindling output there.

Chinese shares tumbled more than 8 percent on Monday as an unprecedented government rescue plan to prop up valuations abruptly ran out of steam, throwing the viability of Beijing's efforts to stave off a deeper crash into doubt.

Japan's trade deficit narrowed sharply last month as exports of automobiles and electronic parts picked up while a sky-high energy import bill continued to fall, finance ministry data showed Thursday.

Syngenta and unwanted suitor Monsanto squabbled over an earnings report from the Swiss pesticides maker on Thursday, with both sides claiming it strengthened their case in a $45 billion takeover battle.

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