Headlines

Crypto users might be tempted to cash in on near-peak prices in the Land of Smiles as early as this month, as regulators plot out a new payments sandbox, DLNews reported. Thailand’s government is reportedly preparing to unveil the TouristDigiPay initiative that would allow foreign visitors to convert digital assets into Thai baht for use at local merchants. Crypto users might be tempted to cash in on near-peak prices in the Land of Smiles as early as this month, as regulators plot out a new payments sandbox.

A U.S. appeals court on Friday granted Argentina's request to put on temporary hold a judge's order that it turn over its 51% stake in oil and gas company YPF to partially satisfy a $16.1 billion judgment won by two investors, Reuters reported. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit stayed U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska's June 30 turnover order while Argentina appeals. Argentina has warned that it would suffer irreparable harm and its economy could be destabilized if it gave up its stake in YPF, the country's largest energy company.

The Chinese economy slowed noticeably in July, according to official statistics released on Friday, highlighting a complex set of challenges facing China amid growing global tensions over trade, the New York Times reported. The government attributed the slowdown partly to the trade war with the United States, though China’s economy is still suffering the overhang of a four-year-long crash in real estate values. What’s more, officials recently have taken deliberate steps to slow its factories as many countries have begun imposing tariffs on China’s massive and still rising exports.

China's new home prices fell again in July, dropping 0.3% on month, but declines eased slightly in major cities as more local governments rolled out incentives for homebuyers, though further support is still needed, Reuters reported. The month-on-month decline was calculated by Reuters, based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday. In June, prices fell 0.3%. China's property market has been stuck in a severe slump for more than four years, with declining prices, sales, new investment and construction starts weighing on economic growth.

Japan's economy grew much faster than expected in the second quarter as export volumes held up well against new U.S. tariffs, giving the central bank some of the conditions it needs to resume interest rate hikes this year, Reuters reported. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1.0% on an annualised basis, government data showed on Friday, marking the fifth straight quarter of expansion after the previous quarter's contraction was revised to growth. However, analysts warn global economic uncertainties fuelled by U.S.

Japan's government on Friday brushed aside rare and explicit comments from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who said the Bank of Japan was "behind the curve" on policy, which appeared to be aimed at pressuring the country's central bank into raising interest rates, Reuters reported. However, some analysts saw Bessent's comments, coupled with unexpectedly solid domestic growth data, as heightening the chance of a near-term rate hike by the BOJ - a view that pushed up Japanese government bond (JGB) yields and the yen on Friday. "It's a sign from the U.S.

Russia has quietly developed a crypto-fueled network of payments systems that's helped it evade Western sanctions over its war in Ukraine, BusinessInsider.com reported. That assessment comes from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, which said that it believes Russia had created a "shadow crypto economy" in the years following its invasion of Ukraine in order to sidestep financial punishment by the US and its allies. The report highlighted one crypto token in particular tied to Russian businesses trying to trade under the radar.

Switzerland’s economic growth slowed sharply in the second quarter, as strong frontrunning of U.S. tariffs in the early part of the year unwound, raising the chance that the Swiss central bank will cut interest rates to below zero later this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product rose 0.1% in the three months to the end of June, down from the 0.8% growth of the first quarter, statistical agency SECO said in a flash estimate on Friday. Growth in the first three months of 2025 was led by U.S.

Brazil is engaged in a "constructive dialogue" with Canada to resume negotiations for a free trade agreement between South America's Mercosur bloc and Ottawa, the Brazilian Foreign Trade Secretary said, Reuters reported. Canadian officials are due to visit Brazil in late August, according to Tatiana Prazeres, Brazil's Foreign Trade Secretary, who shared details of the visit in a written response to Reuters this week.

President Trump’s planned 15 percent tariff on medicines from Europe has shined a spotlight on Ireland, which sends the United States tens of billions of dollars’ worth of cancer medications, weight-loss drug ingredients and other pharmaceutical products each year. No other country sends more, the New York Times reported. Manufacturing blockbuster medications there offers tax benefits for American drug companies. But the appeal of Ireland for the industry goes deeper: Drugmakers have long shifted their patents and profits there, as well, to avoid billions of dollars in taxes.