DAVOS: The World Trade Organization’s chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Wednesday said she was “less optimistic” about world trade in 2024, pointing to tensions in the Red Sea.

BEIJING: China’s economy last year grew at one of its slowest rates in more than three decades, official figures showed Wednesday, as it was battered by a crippling property crisis, sluggish consumption and global turmoil.

JAKARTA: The Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway (HSR), the first of its kind in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, has set a target to serve 31,000 passengers per day throughout this year, said PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China (KCIC), a joint venture consortium between Indonesian and Chinese state-owned firms that constructs and runs the HSR, reports Xinhua.

KUWAIT: To promote the adoption of cutting-edge payment technologies and uphold its commitment to delivering superior services, Gulf Bank is introducing an exclusive promotion for Visa credit cardholders.

DAVOS, Switzerland: The huge gap between how women and men's health are treated costs $1 trillion a year worldwide, the World Economic Forum said on Wednesday.

KUWAIT: National Investments Company (NIC), in its capacity as the partial purchase manager for Rawasi Kuwait Holding Company KSCC, is pleased to announce the successful completion of the partial acquisition of Rasiyat Holding Company KPSC, marking only the second time such a transaction has taken place in Kuwait in compliance with the provisions of book nine of the executive regulations of the Capital Markets Authority’s law no. 7 of 2010 and its amendments.

LONDON: Major stock markets dropped Tuesday as hopes of early interest rate cuts this year fade and tensions mount in the Middle East. Equities soared at the end of 2023 as softening inflation saw the Federal Reserve indicate that it was preparing to reverse more than a year of hikes to US interest rates.

DAVOS: Chinese Premier Li Qiang told the world’s political and business elites in Davos on Tuesday that “discriminatory” trade barriers were a threat to the global economy, in a not-so-subtle dig at the United States.

DAVOS: Liquefied natural gas shipments will be affected by tensions in the Red Sea, Qatar’s prime minister said on Tuesday, warning that military strikes on Yemen risk aggravating the crisis.