AFP, HONG KONG: Oil prices looked set to continue a multi-week decline in Asian trade yesterday on concerns over a global oversupply of crude and mixed prospects for energy demand. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for September delivery was at $44.81, down from $47.12 a week ago, and on course…

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has planned to recover revenue from tax-related cases pending with various courts for years involving Tk 25,783 crore, reports UNB. “The NBR chairman has asked the officials concerned to take effective steps in this regard,” a senior NBR official told…

AFP, HANOI: Asia-Pacific countries negotiating a vast free-trade pact will hopefully secure a deal by the end of this year, US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday in Hanoi. Kerry said the 12 countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) -- including the US, Japan and Vietnam --…

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said that though it was a challenging task but  not impossible to achieve the target of exporting readymade garment amounting to $50 billion by 2021. The minister made this remark while addressing as the chief guest at seminar titled’ Financing Apparel…

AAFP, TAIPEI: Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC plunged to its lowest closing share price in more than a decade Friday, a day after it posted its biggest ever quarterly loss. Stocks dropped by the daily limit of 10 percent to Tw$63 ($1.99) at closing in the wake of disastrous results which prompted the…

AFP, NEW YORK: The New York Times said on Thursday its digital paid subscriptions had topped one million for the first time, as it reported a jump in quarterly profits. The prestigious US daily, which is seeking to manage a transition to digital, said it hit the milestone for digital-only subscriptions…

The UK trade deficit almost doubled in June to £1.6bn, from £885m the previous month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said, reports BBC. A deficit of £9.2bn on goods was partly offset by a £7.6bn surplus on services. Exports fell slightly, reflecting in part weaker…

AFP, TOKYO: The head of the Bank of Japan said yesterday that he would consider pulling the trigger on more stimulus if weak oil prices keep holding back inflation. BoJ chief Haruhiko Kuroda said Japan’s economy was perking up, and the bank held off expanding its record 80 trillion yen ($640 billion)…

AFP, TOKYO: Scandal-hit Toshiba and McDonald's Japan yesterday were booted from a stock index launched to highlight firms with the best return on equity and other shareholder friendly criteria. The shuffle comes as Toshiba grapples with a crisis that exposed a pattern of top executives pressuring…

AFP, BERLIN: Germany's industrial output fell 1.4 per cent and exports from Europe's top economy dropped by one per cent in June from the previous month, data showed Friday. Many German companies are struggling with China's slowdown and recent volatility over the Greece crisis, despite the…

AFP, BEIJING: China's foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, fell to $3.65 trillion at the end of July, the official news agency Xinhua reported yesterday adding that it was the third consecutive monthly decrease. July's fall amounted to $42.5 billion, it said, citing an announcement…

AFP, SYDNEY: Shares in Australia’s big four banks tumbled Friday, led by ANZ, as the market reacted to the financial institution’s weaker-than-expected profits and a surprise Aus$3 billion (US$2.2 billion) capital-raising to meet tougher regulatory requirements. Financial regulator the Australian…

AFP, TOKYO: The dollar rose yesterday as traders focused on key US jobs data later in the day, with an upbeat report likely to boost hopes for a September interest rate hike. In Tokyo, the greenback ticked up to 124.79 yen from 124.73 yen in New York. The euro edged down to $1.0917 and 136.22 yen from…