India’s monthly fuel demand in September was at the lowest since November 2021, government data released on Friday showed.

US employers hired more workers than expected in September, while the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5 per cent, pointing to a tight labour market which keeps the Federal Reserve on its aggressive monetary policy tightening campaign for a while.

The Indian government is looking to sell a 60.72 per cent stake in $5.6 billion IDBI Bank and has invited expressions of interest, it said on Friday, setting the ball rolling on a series of planned divestments to reduce the budget deficit.

The Opec+ organisation’s decision this week to cut oil production despite stiff US opposition has further strained already tense relations between President Joe Biden’s White House and Saudi Arabia’s royal family, once one of Washington’s staunchest Middle East allies, according to interviews with about a dozen government officials and experts in Washington and the Gulf.

Global professional services firm PwC achieved gross global revenues of $50.3 billion, up 13.4 per cent in local currency and 11.4 per cent in US dollars year-on-year in the 12 months ending on June 30 this year.

President Biden on Thursday will tout IBM Corp’s plans to invest $20 billion in New York over the next decade in development and manufacturing of semiconductors, mainframe technology, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

Oil prices held near three-week highs on Thursday after Opec+ agreed to tighten global crude supply with a deal to cut production targets by 2 million barrel per day (bpd), the largest reduction since 2020.

More policies push to meet appetites for evening consumption in China.

The German government expects Europe's largest economy to slide into recession next year, contracting 0.4% as an energy crisis, rising prices and supply bottlenecks take their toll, two sources told Reuters on Thursday, citing provisional figures.

British businesses last month suffered the sharpest contraction in activity since early last year, although the downturn was a little less severe than first estimated, a survey showed on Wednesday.

Opec+ agreed its deepest cuts to oil production since the 2020 Covid pandemic at a Vienna meeting on Wednesday, curbing supply in an already tight market despite pressure from the United States and others to pump more.

German exports rebounded in August thanks to strong demand from the United States, official data showed Wednesday, but analysts warned that the outlook for Europe’s top economy remained gloomy.

The drop in euro zone business activity deepened last month, a survey showed, probably extinguishing any hope the currency union would avoid recession just as elevated inflation puts pressure on the European Central Bank to act.

The World Trade Organisation on Wednesday dramatically lowered its global trade forecast for 2023, as Russia’s war in Ukraine and other shocks take their toll on the world economy.

Turkish energy imports leapt 115 per cent to $9.56 billion in September, the highest ever monthly level, Trade Ministry data showed on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia’s non-oil private sector growth remained solid in September helped by a relatively strong pickup in output and new orders, albeit at a slower pace than in August as confidence softened, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Average wheat, maize, and rice prices rose 20 per cent, 29 per cent and 8 per cent respectively worldwide in September compared to a year ago, according to the Food Security Update of the World Bank.  

The United Nations is pushing to cut the price of fertilisers to avoid a “future crisis” of availability, said a senior UN trade official who is involved in talks aimed at boosting the export of Russian fertilisers, including ammonia.

Turkish businesses can consider the 100 economic zones and 28 high-tech parks of Bangladesh as their preferred investment destinations, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Rizwan Rahman said yesterday.

India’s factory growth dipped to a three-month low in September due to a moderation in demand and output, despite easing inflationary pressures and strong business confidence, a private survey showed.