The marriage of carmakers PSA Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is built on the promise of cost-savings in the capital-hungry industry, but what remains to be seen is if it will be able to preserve jobs and heritage brands in a global market still suffering from the pandemic. PSA Peugeot shareholders on Monday overwhelmingly approved the deal to create the world's fourth-largest carmaker, to...

UK ahead of others once more with emergency approval

The Covid-19 vaccine developed by the British drugs group AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has achieved a "winning formula" for efficacy, the company's chief executive said on Sunday. The vaccine, currently being evaluated by Britain's independent medicines regulator, provides "100 percent protection" against severe Covid disease requiring hospitalisation, Pascal Soriot said in an interv...

South Korea’s video game market was the fifth largest in the world in 2019, falling one position from the previous year, a report showed. The country's video game market reached sales of 15.6 trillion won ($14.2 billion) last year, up 9 percent from the previous year, according to an annual report by the Korea Creative Content Agency. The country ranked behind the United States, China, Japan...

Paris and Switzerland’s Zurich tied Hong Kong as the world’s most expensive cities this year as the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the prices of everyday items, according to a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit. Singapore fell to fourth place as foreign workers left the country after losing their jobs. The research was based on the prices of 138 everyday goods and services in around 130...

SHANGHAI (AFP) -- Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba on Thursday reported solid 30 percent year-on-year revenue growth for the July-September quarter, providing some much-needed good news amid turmoil over its Ant Group affiliate's abandoned IPO. Hangzhou-based Alibaba said revenue -- a key measure of the internet giant's business health as well as overall Chinese consumer spending -- rose to 155...

BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union's executive commission on Thursday lowered its growth forecast for the economic rebound from the coronavirus pandemic next year and said the economy wouldn't reach pre-virus levels until 2023. The regular autumn forecast foresees the economy of the 19 countries that use the euro growing only 4.2 percent in 2021 instead of the previous estimate of 6.1 percent. ...

BEIJING (AP) -- Global stock markets and US futures rose Tuesday on investor hopes that a possible victory by challenger Joe Biden in the American presidential election might lead to more economic stimulus. Dow futures were up 1.6% while those for the S&P 500 were 1.3 percent higher ahead of the start of trading on Wall Street. European indexes were up firmly in midday trading, while Asian marke...

LONDON (AP) -- A global economic watchdog on Monday proposed an overhaul of international tax rules to make sure big tech companies pay their dues, and warned that failure to adopt it would make the economic recovery from COVID-19 harder. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which advises the world's top economies, said its global tax overhaul framework will be ...

TOKYO (AP) -- Global shares mostly rose on Monday as investors weighed the prospects of more US economic stimulus and rising coronavirus cases across the world. US shares were set for a steady outset to the week, with Dow futures rising 0.1 percent and S&P 500 futures up nearly 0.6 percent. France's CAC 40 rose 0.8 percent to 4,985, while Germany's DAX rose 0.6 percent at 13,126. Britain's FTSE...

SEATTLE (AP) -- Amazon has introduced new palm reading technology in a pair of Seattle stores and sees broader uses in places like stadiums and offices. Customers at the stores near Amazon's campus in Washington can flash a palm for entry and to buy goods. The company chose palm recognition, according to Dilip Kumar, vice president of Physical Retail & Technology, because it's more private than...

Public attitudes about the economy have become bleaker as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh globally, according to a Pew Research Center survey released recently. Overall, a median of only 31 percent of adults across the surveyed nations assess their country’s current economic situation as good, while more than two-thirds say conditions are bad. In Germany, while the majority conti...

General Motors formed its second major electric vehicle partnership in less than a week, this time a $2 billion deal with startup Nikola. GM will take an 11 percent ownership stake in the Phoenix company and will engineer and build Nikola's Badger hydrogen fuel cell and electric pickup truck. The Badger is expected to be in production by the end of 2022. GM also will help with cost reductions f...

LG Chem became the largest supplier of electric vehicle batteries in the first seven months of this year, data showed. Based on the global usage of EV batteries, LG Chem’s market share stood at 25.1 percent in the January-July period, compared with 10.6 percent a year earlier, according to market tracker SNE Research. The data showed that 13.4 gigawatt-hours of energy from LG Chem’s EV batte...

FRANKFURT AM MAIN (AFP) -- Germany is in a V-shaped economic recovery and should avoid a new phase of lockdowns, the economy minister said Tuesday, despite a resurgence of coronavirus cases. German GDP is expected to fall 5.8 percent in 2020, a narrower recession than the 6.3 percent drop projected earlier, Peter Altmaier said, signalling that the country is emerging from the worst of the crisis...