Sri Lanka will need about $3 billion in external assistance within the next six months to help restore supplies of essential items, including fuel and medicines, to manage a severe economic crisis, its finance minister told Reuters on Saturday.

Turkey’s inflation hit a new record in March, official data showed Monday, driven up by the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and soaring energy prices.

China on Saturday proposed revising confidentiality rules involving offshore listings, removing a legal hurdle to Sino-US cooperation on audit oversight while putting the onus on Chinese companies to protect state secretes.

Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Bangladesh Sudharshan Seneviratne has sought investment from Bangladesh in tourism and agriculture sectors of the nation, which is now going through an economic turmoil.

Japan will ban the export of high-end cars and other luxury goods to Russia in its latest response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the trade ministry said on Tuesday.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, better known as Sinopec, is planning its highest capital investment in history for 2022 after recording its best profit in a decade, echoing Beijing’s call for energy companies to raise production.

Beijing’s close ties with Moscow may be rattling foreign investors. A study by the Institute of International Finance found that China has been experiencing “unprecedented” capital flight since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Sri Lanka has sought an additional credit line of $1 billion from India to import essentials amid its worst economic crisis in decades, two sources said on Monday, as the Indian foreign minister began talks with the government of its neighbour.

China and Nepal will conduct a feasibility study to construct a high-voltage power transmission line across the Himalayas to facilitate the exchange of electric power, officials said on Saturday.

Hong Ra-hee, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s mother, reportedly sold her shares in the company worth 1.3 trillion won ($1.06 billion) in a block trade Wednesday, the latest stake sale by the Samsung family being carried out apparently to pay inheritance taxes.

Profit growth at China’s industrial firms accelerated in the first two months of the year in line with other signs of momentum in the economy, although the outlook is clouded by domestic Covid-19 outbreaks and the war in Ukraine.

China’s state-run Sinopec Group has suspended talks for a major petrochemical investment and a gas marketing venture in Russia, sources told Reuters, heeding a government call for caution as sanctions mount over the invasion of Ukraine.

One of Sri Lanka’s biggest fuel suppliers hiked the price of gasoline by nearly 20 per cent on Saturday, the second increase in as many weeks, as the country struggles to import oil without dollars.

China aims to increase renewable power, maintain crude oil output and boost natural gas production, as it seeks to balance energy security and achieve its climate change goals.

The deadly crash of a China Eastern Airlines 737-800 could set back Boeing’s efforts to regain ground in the world’s biggest aircraft market and deliver more than 140 737 MAX jets already constructed for Chinese customers.

Sri Lanka ordered troops to petrol stations Tuesday as sporadic protests erupted among the thousands of motorists queueing up daily for scarce fuel.

Travellers to Thailand will no longer have to take a Covid-19 test before boarding the plane, under plans announced Friday as part of efforts to reboot the kingdom’s pandemic-battered tourism sector.

Myanmar’s junta has approved the sale of Norwegian telecoms giant Telenor’s Myanmar subsidiary to Lebanese conglomerate M1 Group, both companies said on Friday, in a move activist groups warn could put sensitive customer data in the hands of the military.

An IMF delegation was in Sri Lanka Monday for talks on the island’s worsening economic crisis, with the public suffering through months of food, fuel and medicine shortages.

Chinese exports in January and February rose a combined 16.3 per cent on surging global demand and a spike in trade with Russia in the run-up to the war in Ukraine, according to customs data released on Monday.