In May, the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, will meet the six Middle Eastern nations that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council. The summit’s host, Malaysia, has invited China to attend. China is also poised to update its own free-trade agreement with ASEAN, which includes Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. … Read more
President Trump’s decision on Saturday to impose new tariffs on imports from China poses a dilemma for Beijing’s leaders: Is it better to ignore the new tariffs or retaliate? Doing little runs the risk of looking weak in the eyes of the Chinese people. China’s extensive domestic propaganda apparatus has described China as a rising … Read more
When Dennis Nixon started working at a regional bank in Laredo, Texas, in 1975, there was just a trickle of trade across the border with Mexico. Now, nearly a billion dollars of commerce and more than 15,000 trucks roll over the line every day just a quarter mile from his office, binding the economies of … Read more
The European Central Bank cut interest rates on Thursday, for the fifth consecutive time, amid slowing growth in the region’s economy. Policymakers lowered the bank’s key rate a quarter point to 2.75 percent as inflation remained relatively close to their 2 percent target. The moves comes a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve held rates … Read more
Rachel Reeves, Britain’s top finance official, on Wednesday laid out plans to revive the country’s flagging economy, including supporting the addition of a third runway at Heathrow Airport, after her first budget rocked business confidence. An additional runway is “badly needed” to increase trade and investment, Ms. Reeves said in a speech to business executives. … Read more
They are ripe for disruption. Well before Mr. Musk first backed the AfD, it had become the second most-popular party in Germany. The Social Democrats, the country’s oldest party which once routinely won more than 40 percent of the vote, are polling at a historic low of 16 percent ahead of next month’s election. The … Read more
In a number of ways, Japan’s economy seems to have gone back in time. Inflation and wage growth are mostly back where they were in the early 1990s, just before the spiral of price deflation and economic stagnation that became known as “the lost decades.” That prompted the Bank of Japan on Friday to raise … Read more
Decades of trade integration across North America are on the precipice of major disruption by tariffs that President Trump says he wants to impose on Canada and Mexico, the United States’ top trading partners. And while tariffs are predicted to inflict pain on all three nations, they would cause more damage to Canada and Mexico, … Read more
A year ago, India was bouncing back from a recession caused by Covid-19 with a spring in its step. The country had overtaken China as the most populous country, and its leaders were declaring India the world’s fastest-growing major economy. This was music to the ears of foreign investors, and to India’s prime minister, Narendra … Read more