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.

Asian equities were mostly up Friday following a tumultuous trading period on Wall Street, which rebounded at the close after investors calmed down about United States (US) policies to counter surging inflation.World markets have been volatile for much of 2022 owing to China's COVID-19 lockdowns, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and as surging inflation weighed on consumer sentiment.The Federal Reserve (Fed) last week had announced its largest rate hike since 2000 and signalled that si

Asia stocks mostly fell Tuesday as markets brace for a sharp United States (US) interest rate hike and similar moves by other central banks as they struggle to control inflation, with traders increasingly worried about another possible recession.Surging prices, moves to tighten monetary policy, China's COVID lockdowns, the Ukraine war and a stronger dollar have come together in recent weeks to cause a massive headache for investors, sending them running to the hills.All eyes are on the c

Qantas announced on Monday it will launch the world's longest non-stop commercial flight, with passengers set to spend 19 hours in the air traveling from Sydney to London by the end of 2025.After five years of planning, the airline said it was ordering 12 Airbus A350-1000 aircraft to operate the "Project Sunrise" flights to cities including London and New York.Non-stop flights will start from Sydney by the end of 2025, it said, with long-haul trips later planned to include Melb

Since going public in 2013, Twitter has only occasionally turned a profit, even if it has a commanding role in politics and culture worldwide.The company's announcement on Monday that it had reached a deal for Tesla boss Elon Musk to buy it outright raises the question of whether this will lead to a brighter financial future for Twitter?Musk has downplayed economic considerations as a motivation for his purchase, saying earlier this month at the TED2022 conference that, "This is not

As Shanghai’s strict lockdown grinds towards its second month, expatriate residents are heading for the exits, a trend that in the long term could threaten the city’s status as a global business hub.The government’s draconian restrictions have prompted rare rebukes from foreign business groups and resulted in the United States (US) ordering all non-emergency staff at its consulate to evacuate.

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

When the news broke last week that Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX and the world’s richest man, had paid US$2.9 billion (£2.3 billion) for 9.2 percent of Twitter, the media world – old and new – briefly lost what might loosely be called its collective mind. What was Musk up to? (He’s always up to something, after all, even if it’s just trolling.

Could the world be headed for another recession?Just as the global economy is bouncing back from the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing list of risks is clouding the economic outlook – although most economists still believe a recession this year is relatively unlikely.The war in Ukraine, Russia sanctions, China’s “zero COVID” policies, spiking inflation, and interest hikes by the United States (US) Federal Reserve (Fed) are all set to crimp growth in 2022.The question is whether deteriorating condi

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.