Oil prices rose slightly in early Asian trading on Thursday, as markets weighed bullish U.S. inventory data on Wednesday and a likely extension of OPEC+ output cuts against the fallout of Fitch's downgrade of the U.S. government's top credit.
The dollar was perched near a four-week high on Thursday, shrugging off a U.S. credit rating downgrade that cast doubt on the country's fiscal outlook, and instead got a leg up from strong private payrolls data.
MIDF Research has maintained its forecast that Malaysia’s GDP growth will moderate at 4.2% in 2023 (2022: 8.7%), weighed down by uninspiring external trade performance as real exports of goods is predicted to contract by 2.8% (2022: +11.1).
New rules requiring Indonesian natural resource exporters to keep some of their proceeds onshore could add up to US$9 billion (RM40.6 billion) per month to the foreign exchange supply and strengthen the rupiah exchange rate, senior officials said.
Ukraine expects its economy to grow by about 5% next year, driven by investment in reconstruction and stronger consumer demand, a senior Economy Ministry official said.
Prices in British store chains rose in July at the slowest annual rate this year, industry data showed.