Six Pacific countries are at a high risk of debt distress in part due to government spending to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, the World Bank said in a report on Thursday.
The U.S. supply chain is healing from early pandemic shocks that sent shipping costs skyrocketing and squeezed supplies of everything from toilet paper to pasta, but more than three years later, material shortages and hiring woes linger.
Most Asian stock markets rose on Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street amid optimism that the U.S. debt ceiling will be raised, while gains in Japanese conglomerate Sony boosted the Nikkei to a 20-month high.
Oil prices fell in early Asian trade on Thursday as traders warily watched for signs of progress on talks to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, after surging nearly 3% in the previous session on optimism over U.S. fuel demand.
The U.S. dollar held near a seven-week peak on Thursday, after President Joe Biden and top U.S. congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy worked towards avoiding a damaging debt default, while the Aussie dollar slipped after disappointing jobs data.
Asian shares were subdued on Wednesday and the dollar hovered around a five-week peak as investors remained risk averse, with the U.S. debt ceiling talks and a mixed set of economic data weighing on sentiment.