Business
Latest stories
France's government prepares new measures to calm farmers' protests

With protesting farmers camped out at barricades around Paris, France's government hoped to calm their anger with more concessions Tuesday to their complaints that growing and rearing food has become too difficult and not sufficiently lucrative.

Attention was focusing on an address that new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal was to give in the afternoon to France's lower house of parliament, laying out his government's priorities.

W140 Full Story
Aramco says will not increase daily oil production on state orders

Saudi Arabia's oil giant Saudi Aramco said Tuesday it will not try to increase its maximum daily oil production to 13 million barrels a day after receiving an order from the country's Energy Ministry.

The firm, known formally as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., said it would maintain its maximum output at 12 million barrels a day.

W140 Full Story
EU moves slowly toward using profits from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine

European Union nations have decided to approve an outline deal that would keep in reserve the profits from hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian central bank assets that have been frozen in retaliation for Moscow's war in Ukraine, an EU official said.

The tentative agreement, reached late Monday, still needs formal approval but is seen as a first step toward using some of the 200 billion euros ($216 billion) in Russian central bank assets in the EU to help Ukraine rebuild from Russian destruction.

W140 Full Story
Why are EU leaders struggling to unlock 50-billion-euro support package for Ukraine?

Almost two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the war has ground to a virtual stalemate. Ukraine desperately needs support to keep its economy afloat, but political infighting in the European Union and the United States are depriving it of the financial lifeline it needs.

As Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban continues to oppose a 50 billion-euro ($54 billion) support package for Ukraine, other EU leaders are losing patience.

W140 Full Story
UN says global trade disrupted by Red Sea attacks, Ukraine war and low water in Panama Canal

The U.N. trade body has sounded an alarm that global trade is being disrupted by attacks in the Red Sea, the war in Ukraine, and low water levels in the Panama Canal.

Jan Hoffmann, a trade expert at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development known as UNCTAD, warned that shipping costs have already surged and energy and food costs are being affected, raising inflation risks.

W140 Full Story
Protesting farmers heap pressure on new French PM ahead of hotly anticipated measures

Protesting farmers shut down long stretches of some of France's major highways again on Friday, using their tractors to block and slow traffic and squeeze the government ever more tightly to cede to their demands that growing and rearing food should be made easier and more lucrative.

Their spreading movement for better renumeration for their produce, less red tape and lower costs, and protection against cheap imports is increasingly becoming a major crisis for the government, with echoes of the 2018-2019 yellow vest demonstrations against economic injustice that rocked the first term of President Emmanuel Macron and lastingly dented his popularity.

W140 Full Story
China doubles down on moves to mend economy and fend off financial crisis

China's leaders launched a barrage of new policies this week to prop up languishing financial markets and rekindle growth in the world's second-largest economy.

The moves to support lending and spending with billions of dollars of fresh cash gathered pace when the central bank cut bank reserve requirements and issued new rules to encourage banks to lend more to property companies.

W140 Full Story
US and UK sanction four Yemeni Houthi leaders over Red Sea shipping attacks

The U.S. and U.K. have imposed sanctions on four leaders of Yemen's Houthi rebel group who have supported the militant group's recent attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Houthi leaders Mohamed al-Atifi, Muhammad Fadl Abd al-Nabi, Muhammad Ali al-Qadiri and Muhammad Ahmad al-Talibi are all accused of assisting or sponsoring acts of terrorism, according to U.S. Treasury.

W140 Full Story
Thousands in India flock to recruitment center for jobs in Israel despite war

Thousands of Indians flocked to a recruitment center on Thursday for jobs that would take them to Israel despite the three-month Israeli-Hamas war that is devastating Gaza and threatening to ignite the wider Middle East.

Many among the crowd of men, mostly skilled construction workers and laborers, said they would take their chances in a country embroiled in war as they are struggling to find jobs in India, where unemployment remains high despite a swelling economy.

W140 Full Story
Turkey's central bank hikes key interest rate again to 45% to battle inflation

Turkey's central bank raised its key interest rate by another 2.5 percentage points on Thursday, pressing ahead with a series of hikes aimed at combating inflation that reached nearly 65% in December.

The bank brought its benchmark rate to 45%. It's the eighth interest rate hike since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has abandoned his unconventional economic policies that economists say helped trigger a currency crisis and drove up the cost of living. Many households were left struggling to afford basic goods.

W140 Full Story