BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s economy is still on the recovery path and should grow 3.4% this year and 3.8% next year, supported by a rebound in its vital tourism sector, the finance minister said on Wednesday. Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy can weather global uncertainties, while average inflation should come in at 6% this year, Arkhom…
NEW YORK (AP) — Say goodbye to virtual wine tastings, and bust out the karaoke. Love them or hate them, company holiday parties are back — in a toned-down kind of way. After more than two years of working in pajama bottoms and clinking glasses over Zoom, many office workers seem to be yearning for…
BEIJING (Reuters) – China has set out plans to expand domestic demand, the state Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday, as the economy struggles with COVID and weakening external demand. It said the plans had been issued in recent days. (Reporting by Beijing Newsrooom; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
By Jared Higgs and Brian Ellsworth NASSAU (Reuters) – Cordoned-off roads, a sweltering courtroom and numerous delays marked Sam Bankman-Fried’s first in-person public appearance since his crypto company collapsed. The Bahamas courtroom hearing, conducted over the course of six hours, saw Bankman-Fried, dressed in a suit rather than his typical t-shirt attire, seeking bail to…
By Summer Zhen and Samuel Shen HONG KONG/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Global investors, already caught off guard by China’s virus-policy U-turn, now find themselves flying blind into a chaotic post-pandemic transition, lacking proper data to track rising infections and potential threats to the economy in the months ahead. Authorities in China, where official data often confounds…
(Reuters) -U.S. lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill to sanction Chinese tech company Huawei Technologies Ltd and Chinese 5G companies, restricting them from accessing U.S. banks. The bill, introduced by Republican senator Tom Cotton and backed by lawmakers such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, seeks to “severely sanction” Huawei, and other “untrustworthy”…
LONDON (AP) — U.K. inflation has eased but is still stuck near a 40-year high, piling pressure on employers to boost wages as the nation faces a wave of strikes and the Bank of England to approve a ninth consecutive interest rate increase. While annual consumer price inflation dipped to 10.7% in November from 11.1%…
By Lawrence White LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC will no longer provide new lending or capital markets finance for new oil and gas fields, the British bank said on Wednesday, as part of a wider update to its energy policy. The bank said it will continue funding natural gas projects for now, given the global energy…
BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares skidded Thursday after a retreat on Wall Street as markets registered their dismay over the Federal Reserve’s warning that still higher interest rates are in store following its latest increase. Oil prices fell while U.S. futures edged higher. Japan reported its trade deficit in November surged to over 2 trillion…
By Muyu Xu SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Road and air traffic in China, the world’s second-biggest oil consumer, has rebounded sharply after a significant easing in the country’s COVID-19 restrictions, boosting the outlook for fuel demand and supporting crude prices. After almost three years of pursuing a policy targeting zero COVID cases, China last week abandoned…
