Markets in China sank Friday despite a fresh flurry of measures to help prop up the ailing property sector, as the International Monetary Fund forecast that the Chinese economy will continue to slow in coming years.

The report by the IMF forecast that the economy would expand at a 4.6% annual pace this year, down from 5.2% in 2023. It put growth in 2028 at 3.4%. It noted that housing starts had fallen more than 60% from pre-pandemic levels after a crackdown on excessive borrowing that began in 2020.

French farmers were gradually lifting their roadblocks around Paris and elsewhere in the country on Friday, a day after the French government offered over 400 million euros ($436 million) in various measures meant to answer their grievances over low earnings, heavy regulation and unfair competition from abroad.

On major highways around the French capital, protesters took down tents, cleaned up the road and set fire to straw bales that they were using as barricades. Convoys of tractors were leaving the sites in a peaceful and orderly manner amid a large police deployment meant to ensure the security of operations.

Farmers parked their tractors across key road crossings on the border between Belgium and the Netherlands on Friday in their latest protest against excessive red tape and competition from cheap imports.

The roadblocks, mainly by Belgian farmers with support of some Dutch colleagues, choked highways that are vital transport routes for freight from the major European ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam. They were set up after a day of chaos Thursday in Brussels, where angry farmers torched hay bales and threw eggs and firecrackers at police near a summit of European Union leaders.

The writing of angry farmers was on the Paris-to-Brussels highway in giant yellow letters visible from up high: "Ursula, We are here!"

It was chalked onto the road with an equal measure of defiance and desperation, warning European Commission Ursula von der Leyen not to ignore farmers' concerns for better prices and less bureaucracy.

The Bank of England has kept its main interest rate at a near 16-year high as inflation remains too high for comfort, and like the U.S. Federal Reserve a day earlier, it gave no signal that it is getting close to cutting borrowing costs anytime soon.

In a statement Thursday, the central bank said it had maintained its key rate at 5.25%, where it has been since August last year. The nine-member Monetary Policy Committee was split, with two voting for a quarter-point increase and one voting for a quarter-point cut.

Convoys with hundreds of angry farmers driving heavy-duty tractors created chaos outside the European Union's headquarters on Thursday, demanding leaders at an EU summit provide relief from rising prices and bureaucracy.

Farmers pelted police in the Belgian capital with firecrackers, eggs and beer bottles through thick smoke from burning bales of hay, and security forces used water cannons to douse fires and keep a farmer from felling a tree on the steps of the European Parliament.

Inflation in Europe edged lower in January to 2.8%, keeping alive speculation about quick interest rate cuts that would lower borrowing costs for businesses and consumers — and help boost the stagnating economy.

The annual figure released Thursday by the European Union statistics agency Eurostat compares with 2.9% in December and matched what was expected by market analysts.

The U.S. has slapped sanctions on three companies and one person in Lebanon and Turkey, accusing them of funneling funds to Iran's Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah.

The U.S. Treasury announced sanctions on Turkish company Mira Ihracat Ithalat Petrol (Mira), which it said "purchases, transports, and sells Iranian commodities on the global market;" on its chief executive, Ibrahim Talal al-Uwayr; and on Lebanon-based Yara Offshore SAL and Hydro Company for Drilling Equipment Rental, both of which it said have sold large quantities of Iranian goods to Syria.

Farmers blocked more traffic arteries across Belgium, France and Italy on Wednesday, as they sought to disrupt trade at major ports and other economic lifelines. They also moved closer to Brussels on the eve of a major European Union summit, in a continued push for better prices for their produce and less bureaucracy in their work.

The protests had an immediate impact on Wednesday, as the EU's executive commission announced plans to shield farmers from cheap exports from wartime Ukraine and allow farmers to use some land that had been forced to lie fallow for environmental reasons.

Lebanon’s gasoline, diesel and gas importing companies announced overnight that they would be suspending the delivery of fuel to distributors as of Wednesday morning as well as importation operations, in protest at parliament’s decision to impose an extraordinary tax on the companies that “imported subsidized goods in 2020 and 2021.”

Urging “solutions,” the importers said they would be willing to reopen and supply the market with fuel, even on Sundays, when the issue gets resolved.