US retail sales shot up one percent in June amid the ongoing surge in prices, according to new data Friday that spelled more bad news for the Federal Reserve as it struggles to rein in rampant inflation.. Record gas prices at the pump in June were a major factor, boosting sales at gasoline stations 3.6 percent in the month, and posting an eye-watering 49.1 percent surge over the past year, the report said.
The world's authoritarian regimes are persecuting their opponents living abroad more vigorously than ever before and some get away with murder, literally.. "The threat perception of dictators or these repressive regimes has increased," said Marcus Michaelson, a researcher on authoritarianism at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels.
Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs met in Indonesia Friday for talks on the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with the host warning them failure to tackle energy and food crises would be catastrophic.. After Russia's delegation addressed the meeting, a Western official told AFP Moscow did not send their finance minister or central bank governor in person "after the very direct criticism" that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov faced last week at talks in Bali.
Alibaba shares sank on Friday after a report said the tech giant's executives had been called in for meetings with Chinese officials over the theft of a vast police database.. The company's shares slumped 5.7 percent at the open in Hong Kong on Friday, hours after The Wall Street Journal reported that Shanghai authorities had called in its executives for talks in connection with the heist.
Stocks were mixed in Asia on Friday as soaring inflation and a series of interest rate hikes around the world continued to fan recession fears, while a big miss on Chinese growth added to anxiety about the world's biggest economies.. After rate hikes by a number of countries this week, investors expect the Federal Reserve to lift rates this month by 75 basis points as officials battle to rein in decades-high inflation, though some observers suggest a one-percentage-point move could be on the cards.
Posted far from home for his job at Japanese conglomerate Hitachi, father of two Tsutomu Kojima was "really lonely" until he began working remotely during the pandemic for the first time.. The couple now mostly do their jobs in communication and marketing remotely from Fujisawa, southwest of the capital, having struggled to both work from home in Tokyo.
China's economy grew just 0.4 percent in the second quarter, a two-year low, official data showed Friday, with Covid lockdowns and an embattled property market nudging a government target further out of reach.. The urban unemployment rate was 5.5 percent, down from 5.9 percent in May, said the NBS. - 'Still unstable' - The data comes in the wake of mounting challenges in China's key real estate sector -- which by some estimates accounts for a quarter of gross domestic product -- with weak home sales in recent months.
Airlines are recovering from huge Covid fallout but face fresh turbulence from rocketing inflation while airports battle to cope with booming demand.. - Consolidation - There is rapid consolidation as the sector faces headwinds from historically-high fuel prices and big salary increases in the face of decades-high inflation.
Aviation's biggest players descend on the renowned Farnborough airshow next week, buoyed by the travel sector's nascent recovery from the Covid pandemic and as Russia's invasion of Ukraine boosts defence spending.. - Ukraine brings defence focus - Russia's assault on Ukraine has thrown the spotlight on defence aerospace, as governments worldwide seek to bolster capability of their armed forces.
The pandemic, the war on Ukraine, and more than two weeks of ruinous protests over soaring living costs -- Ecuador's flower industry has recently had to surmount one obstacle after another.. "The flower business is already complicated, it does not need protests, pandemics or wars to make it complicated," said Marco Penaherrera, who sends about 120,000 roses to the United States every week.
