Bloomberg South Korea’s exports continued to decline in December in a sign of cooling global demand as higher interest rates weigh on consumption. Overseas shipments dropped 9.5% from a year earlier, compared with economists’ forecasts for an 11.1% decline, according to data by the trade ministry. Imports fell 2.4%. The trade shortfall was $4.7 billion in December, resulting in ...

  Bloomberg Indonesia will do away with indoor mask mandates and remove the requirement to show proof of vaccination when entering buildings, becoming one of the last few countries to completely end Covid-19 restrictions. The decision was taken as almost all of Indonesia’s population had immunity against the virus, said President Joko Widodo. “We once failed in containing Covid, but ...

  Bloomberg Vietnam’s economy grew at the fastest pace in Asia in 2022, signalling momentum just before risks from a global slowdown began to materialise. Gross domestic product rose 8.02% in the year to December, according to official data reported. That was faster than the government’s initial target of 6%-6.5% growth and was aided by a quicker-than-expected 5.92% expansion in ...

Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged to increase his nuclear arsenal in the new year to stifle US and South Korean hostile acts, in a policy-setting address where he left almost no opening for a return to long-stalled disarmament talks. In a speech that came at the end of a nearly weeklong meeting of his ruling Workers Party, Kim ...

  Bloomberg Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti is calling for a bolstered presence of Nato peacekeeping forces in his country. “A massive bolstering of Nato troops and military equipment in our country would improve security and peace in Kosovo and the entire West-Balkan region,” Kurti said in an interview with German newspaper WELT. Following recent tensions between Kosovo and neighboring ...

  Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to push ahead next year with an unpopular overhaul of the country’s pension system that will effectively force people to work longer. The new rules on retirement will apply from the end of the summer, he said during a New Year’s address to the nation in which he urged citizens to remain unified ...

Bloomberg When Myanmar carried out the death penalty for the first time in three decades by executing four activists in July, China and Russia stayed silent while the US and its allies condemned the junta. Now the regime is on the verge of doing it again. Seven university students were sentenced to death last month by a secretive military court ...

  Bloomberg Venezuela’s opposition put an end to Juan Guaido’s interim government, voting against renewing his US-backed strategy that failed to oust President Nicolas Maduro over the course of almost four years. A proposal to eliminate the parallel government passed a second and final round of voting in the opposition-led National Assembly. Starting from January 5, the National Assembly is ...

  Bloomberg China’s ruling Communist Party has named Wang Yi to direct the nation’s foreign policy after he was promoted to the 24-member Politburo following last year’s twice-a-decade party congress. The foreign ministry’s website posted a report by Wang as the director of the general office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission. His previous position as foreign minister was recently ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Britons that the problems bedeviling the country won’t disappear in 2023, a warning that prompted the Labour Party to accuse the government of wrecking the economy. In his first New Year’s address as prime minister, Sunak struck a sombre tone, acknowledging that it had been a difficult year for the country. “I am ...