Japan's annual exports grew much-less than expected in June, highlighting weak Chinese and Western demand that continues to undercut the post-COVID recovery in the world's third-biggest economy.

Euro zone gross domestic product was flat in the first three months of this year against the previous quarter, the EU's statistics agency Eurostat said on Thursday, revising a previous reading of a 0.1% quarter-on-quarter contraction.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, touching the lowest level in two months amid ongoing labor market tightness and defying efforts by the Federal Reserve to slow demand.

Core inflation in Japan's capital likely stayed above the central bank's 2% target but slowed sharply in July, a Reuters poll showed on Friday, suggesting that easing cost pressures will moderate the pace of price gains nationwide.

Malaysia's overall trade contracted 16.3% in June 2023 to RM222.14bil as compared to a year ago as the value of shipments exchanged with its major trading partners remained on a slide.

Auto sales in Malaysia for the first half of 2023 grew 10.3% year-on-year to 366,037 units. This means that the new vehicle market has not only returned to pre-pandemic levels, but is actually higher than before. This rosy 1H2023 total industry volume (TIV) is on the back of 2022’s all-time record sales of 720,658 units.