MANILA (AP) -- China's economy will grow slightly faster than expected this year at 6.9 percent and its shift to fostering services and private consumption is helping to support regional growth, the Asian Development Bank said Thursday.An ADB report said Asia's developing economies remain resilient to economic weakness in industrialized countries and are on track to grow 5.8 percent in 2015 and 6 percent in 2016.It said Asia's growth is supported by vibrant private consumption and services in Ch

The average daily trading volume of the won-yuan trading market here has exceeded $2 billion over the past year as it has successfully taken root to help bolster South Korea-China economic ties, data showed Tuesday.The daily turnover reached an average $2.26 billion as of end-November, compared with a daily $880 million recorded in December last year, the first month of the launch of the market, according to data compiled by the Bank of Korea. In November, the figure hit $3.63 billion.The daily

The International Monetary Fund decided Monday to include China's yuan in a basket of key international currencies in a move expected to serve as a boon to the world's second-largest economy.The IMF decided at an executive board meeting to add the yuan, also known as the renminbi , to the special drawing right  basket of currencies currently made up of the U.S. dollar, euro, Japanese yen and British pound.The decision has been widely expected after IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said ea

South Korea gave preliminary approval for two groups -- one from the new economy and another from the old, and both with Chinese partners -- to set up the nation’s first Internet-only banks as the government seeks to reinvigorate a sector suffering from slow growth and slim margins.Kakao Corp., operator of Korea’s leading messaging app KakaoTalk, and KT Corp., the former government phone monopoly, were chosen from a field of three applications. A group headed by online retail operator Interpark

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) -- With Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg about to become a dad, the social network boosted the amount of time fathers can take off to bond with their new babies.Beginning with the new year, dads working full-time for Facebook anywhere in the world will have the option of taking four months' paid leave.All new dads working for Facebook outside the US currently get a minimum of four weeks' paternity leave, with more time offered in locations where required by local law, acco

Volkswagen's emissions cheating scandal widened Friday after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the German automaker used software to cheat on pollution tests on more six-cylinder diesel vehicles than originally thought.Volkswagen told the EPA and the California Air Resources Board the software is on about 85,000 Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles with 3-liter engines going back to the 2009 model year. Earlier this month the regulators accused VW of installing the so-called “defeat

China should press ahead with efforts to make the yuan's exchange rate more flexible as it seeks to boost the currency's global usage, according to a former central bank adviser.The yuan's likely inclusion in the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights basket is recognition of the progress China has made since it unified the official and market exchange rates in 1994, but more needs to be done, said Yu Yongding, a former academic member of the People's Bank of China's monetary polic

Barclays will pay an additional $150 million to New York State’s financial regulator to resolve allegations that it rigged foreign exchange trading by putting the bank’s interests ahead of those of its clients, the regulator said on Wednesday.The British bank is also removing a head of global electronic trading for foreign exchange-related misconduct, the New York Department of Financial Services said. The person’s identity was unclear.The penalty will be reflected in Barclays’ fourth quarter 20

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Minutes of the Federal Reserve’s late October policy board meeting confirmed Wednesday that participants expected to begin raising interest rates in December.While some at the Oct. 27-28 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee said it was already time for the first rate increase in over nine years, “most participants” expected the economic conditions would be right by their Dec. 15-16 meeting, the minutes said.That confirmed the central message of the formal October FOMC

NEW YORK (AFP) -- Global oil prices moved modestly higher Wednesday as traders weighed a small gain in U.S. inventories and a Federal Reserve report that supported expectations of a December interest rate hike. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in December edged up eight cents to $40.75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent North Sea crude for January delivery, the global benchmark for crude oil, rose to $44.14 a barrel in London, up 57 cents from Tuesday's settle

Germany luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz will recall 555 S63 AMG 4Matic sedans for ignition-related problems, the government said Sunday.The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said cars made between May 13, 2013 and Sept. 18, 2015 will be recalled from December onwards. It said the cars have been found to have a glitch in the electronic control unit program that sometimes keeps fuel from flowing to the engine when the vehicle slows down. The drop in fuel can cause the ignition to turn o