At Railay Beach, an Instagrammers’ favourite known for its wide, warm sands bookended by limestone cliffs, 23-year-old Londoner Becca sips coffee and savours the return of Thai backpacking following a recent easing of entry requirements.“We saved our money, quit work and travelled here,” she said of her months-long trip with friends, which was impossible during the last two years lost to the pandemic.

China's retail sales slumped to its lowest in two years while factory output plunged, official data showed Monday, capturing the dismal economic fallout from Beijing's zero-COVID policy.The world's second-largest economy has persisted with strict virus measures, choking up global supply chains as dozens of Chinese cities – including key business hub Shanghai – grapple with restrictions.Officials have vowed to support growth, lowering the mortgage rate for first-time homebuyers.

Since early April protesters had been demanding that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahinda, his prime minister, quit for leading the country to economic ruin – but this week saw a decisive turning point.First, Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned after his supporters attacked anti-government protesters, triggering deadly clashes across the country.

Not for the first time, China once again dominated the news this week.The release of new economic data provided a temperature check of the world’s second-largest economy, while dubious COVID-19 death rates focused attention on Beijing’s reputation for secrecy and narrative control at all costs.

When Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called for a “sense of urgency” about growing economic risks during a meeting with provincial officials earlier this week, it was his third such warning in days.“We need to be highly vigilant for unexpected changes in the international and domestic situations, and downward economic pressure has further mounted,” China’s No 2 official told a symposium in Jiangxi province on Monday, according to a report in South China Morning Post, less than a week after drawing

It's the first time Shanghai has imposed such strict restrictions – until last month, it had taken a more relaxed approach than other Chinese cities.What's Happening In Shanghai?People in the city are confined to their homes, and most have to order in food and water and wait for government drop-offs of vegetables, meat and eggs.Videos shared on social media show complaints by angry residents about food shortages and inadequate medical supplies.It's Shanghai's first experie

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has further dampened the economic prospects for developing countries in east Asia and the Pacific, meaning lower economic growth and higher poverty in the region this year, the World Bank has warned.The Ukraine factor came on top of the existing risks that the region – home to 2.1 billion people and stretching from China to Papua New Guinea – has been facing in recent years.

With little notice, officials imposed a lockdown on the city's more than 26 million residents.

Street protests gripped Sri Lanka Friday as demonstrators blocked main roads across the country, a day after hundreds tried to storm the president's home in anger over an unprecedented economic crisis.The South Asian nation is facing severe shortages of essentials, sharp price rises and crippling power cuts in its most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.Police reimposed a night-time curfew Friday in the Western Province, which includes the capital Colombo, slightly

Vietnam's economy expanded more than five percent in the first three months of the year, the government said Tuesday thanks to a pick-up in exports as the country emerges from the worst of the global pandemic, though officials warned of headwinds.The ASEAN member state has long been a success story among Asian economies, posting growth of seven percent in 2019.But growth came in at just 2.9 percent in 2020 as the pandemic shut most of the world down, while last year saw just 2.6 percent