Vietnam's economic growth slowed to 5.05% this year from an expansion of 8.02% last year, official data showed on Friday, weighed by weak global demand while public investment stalled amid an intensified anti-graft crackdown.

The number of Americans filing initial claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, indicating the labor market continues to cool in the year's fourth quarter.

Oil prices are set to end 2023 about 10% lower, the first annual decline in two years, after geopolitical concerns, production cuts and global measures to rein in inflation triggered wild fluctuations in prices.

The dollar looked set on Friday to end 2023 with a loss, reversing two straight years of gains, dragged by market expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve could begin easing rates as early as next March.

Thailand is planning a larger budget deficit of 713 billion baht ($20.71 billion) for the 2025 fiscal year and higher spending of 3.6 trillion baht that year, the government said, in a plan that would see a rise in spending over the next two years.

Singapore households are bracing for a sales tax hike that takes effect in the new year as the government shores up coffers ahead of an expected surge in social spending in the rapidly ageing city-state in the years ahead.