China and Brazil have reached a deal to trade in their own currencies, ditching the US dollar as an intermediary, the Brazilian government said Wednesday, Beijing’s latest salvo against the almighty greenback.

China is committed to opening up the world’s second-largest economy and delivering reforms that can help stimulate growth, Premier Li Qiang said on Thursday, adding that geopolitical tension would only hold back development worldwide.

Inflation is expected to ease significantly in Germany in March on the back of lower energy prices, preliminary data from six economically key states in the country showed on Thursday.

Prices of safe-haven gold dropped on Wednesday as easing fears of a further contagion from the global banking crisis whetted appetite for riskier assets.

Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft and India’s top refiner Indian Oil Corp have signed a term agreement to substantially increase oil supplies and diversify oil grades delivered to India, Rosneft said on Wednesday.

Vietnam’s economic growth slowed in the first quarter of the year as exports slumped due to reduced consumer demand, authorities said Wednesday.

The failures of US lenders Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank, followed by Credit Suisse’s rescue, and the ensuing turmoil in world markets have re-ignited the recession risks that appeared to have abated just a few weeks ago.

Russian oil sales to India surged more than twentyfold last year as European buyers turned to other markets following the conflict in Ukraine, Russia’s deputy prime minister said Tuesday.

Bullish bitcoin has been a surprise winner of the banking blowout. Yet investors aiming to amp up their bets face an ominous obstacle: a lack of liquidity that could trigger wild price swings.

Britons already reeling from the biggest rise in food prices since 1977 may have to get used to shortages of fresh vegetables as soaring costs and unpredictable weather hit domestic production.

Gold prices dipped for a third straight session on Tuesday, retreating further from the key $2,000 mark, with investors turning towards higher-risk assets as banking turmoil subsides, although a softer dollar limited losses.

The global economy’s “speed limit”—the maximum long-term rate at which it can grow without sparking inflation—is set to slump to a three-decade low by 2030, a new World Bank report showed. 

Immediate investor concerns over the banking sector eased on Tuesday, lifting stock prices, with the European Central Bank’s supervisory chief saying recent sector volatility underscored the need to step up regulatory scrutiny.

The Indian rupee rose against the US currency on Monday, helped by likely dollar inflows and healthier risk, traders said.

The slump in Chinese industrial firms’ profits deepened in the first two months of 2023, weighed by lacklustre demand and stubbornly high costs as the world’s second-largest economy struggled to fully shake the long-term effects of Covid.

The United States will likely enter a recession this year and face high inflation well into 2024, a majority of economists predicted in their response to a semiannual survey.

Cash-strapped British households cut back on eating out and takeaways last month and instead bought food at supermarkets and shopped at discount stores, giving an unexpected boost to retail sales, official data showed on Friday.

At the turn of the year, bitcoin was in the grip of a bleak midwinter, down and out after a 2022 defined by tumbling crypto prices, bankruptcies and corporate scandals.

Hong Kong maintained fourth place globally in the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) 33 Report published on Thursday by the Z/Yen from the United Kingdom and the China Development Institute from Shenzhen.

Standard Chartered plans to sell its Jordanian business to Arab Jordan Investment Bank (AJIB), the two parties said on Sunday, as the emerging markets-focused lender presses ahead with plans to exit seven markets in Africa and the Middle East.