BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s factory activity contracted at the sharpest rate in 23 months in January, underscoring the huge economic costs from the country’s zero-COVID approach as surging cases and tough containment measures weighed on output and demand, a private survey showed on Sunday. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 49.1 in…

By David Milliken LONDON (Reuters) – British businesses grew at the slowest pace since April 2021 during the past three months, after demand for face-to-face services slumped due to the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the Confederation of British Industry said on Sunday. Britain’s economy only recovered to its pre-pandemic size in November, before being hit…

(Reuters) – T-Mobile US Inc will fire corporate employees who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by April 2, according to an internal company memo posted on the independent blog TMOnews.com. The blog said T-Mobile’s new policy was announced on Friday in an email from its human resource chief to all staff. It follows a…

(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve could supersize an interest rate increase to half a percentage point if inflation remains stubbornly high, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic told the Financial Times in an interview. Bostic stuck to his call for three quarter-point interest rate increases in 2022, with the first in March, but a more aggressive…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will participate in a February meeting of the G20 remotely because of a rise in the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement. The secretary will attend virtual sessions with her counterparts as well as hold bilateral meetings to discuss the…

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs is forecasting that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates five times in 2022, versus four previously, with a hike expected in March, according to a note from its economists late on Friday. Economists have scrambled to update rate hike expectations since the Fed on Wednesday said it…

By Pamela Barbaglia LONDON (Reuters) -CVC Capital Partners co-Chairman Steve Koltes will step down this year as Europe’s biggest buyout firm prepares for a stock market listing that a source familiar with the matter told Reuters could value it at more than 20 billion euros ($22 billion). Koltes, who co-founded CVC in 1993 as a…

ANKARA (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan repeated his unorthodox economic policy on Saturday, saying interest rates would be lowered further and inflation would fall as a result, days before inflation data for January is announced, adding Turkey’s economic woes would pass. Embroiled in a currency crisis fuelled by the central bank’s move to slash rates…

MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Australia will seek to be included in consultations about a trade dispute between the European Union and China launched by the EU at the World Trade Organisation, the Australian trade minister said on Saturday. Thursday’s EU challenge accuses China of discriminatory trade practices against Lithuania, saying they threatened the integrity of the single…

(Reuters) – Myanmar’s economy will remain critically weak for much of 2022 and will be “severely tested” by the impacts of a coup a year ago, but there are recent signs of stabilisation in manufacturing and exports, according to the World Bank. In its latest update on Myanmar’s economy, the World Bank projects growth of…