Japan's central bank Thursday maintained its ultra-loose monetary easing policy and said it was not looking for an exit strategy, even as the US central bank hikes interest rates.

Weaker economic growth and tepid price pressures in Asia will leave central banks in the region with few reasons to tighten policy next year — especially as US rate hikes slow — unless a new bout of currency weakness forces them to do so.

Hyundai Motor Co plans to start producing electric vehicles (EVs) in Indonesia as part of an around $880 million auto investment in the country, Industry Deputy Minister Harjanto said on Thursday.

Pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer on Wednesday announced a merger of their consumer healthcare units that produce over-the-counter medicines.

Indian drug authorities visited some of Johnson & Johnson's facilities on Wednesday and took “tests and samples” of its talcum powder, the company said in a statement.

Germany was Wednesday set to toughen rules on non-EU share purchases and acquisitions of its strategic companies, amid growing disquiet about takeovers by Chinese firms.

Malaysia on Wednesday charged a second former banker at Goldman Sachs Group Inc in connection with a suspected money-laundering scheme at state fund 1MDB and said it had issued a summons to the bank.

Opec heavyweight Saudi Arabia on Tuesday announced an expansionary budget for 2019 but projected a shortfall for the sixth year in a row due to low oil prices.

India will tax most goods at below 18 percent in a further simplification of the Goods and Services Tax, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, aiming to shore up support among businesses that have struggled with the new system.

A very cautious optimism remains among Asian companies in the fourth quarter as they wait to see whether there will be any breakthrough in a trade dispute between the United States and China, a Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey showed.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk made a brief public appearance late on Tuesday to unveil the first tunnel completed by the underground transit venture he launched two years ago as an ambitious remedy to Los Angeles' infamously heavy traffic.

The United States and China clashed anew at the World Trade Organization on Wednesday, accusing each other of undermining the multilateral trading system, according to texts of speeches at closed-door talks seen by Reuters.

Britain's BP has launched the sale of US oil and gas onshore assets that could raise more than $3 billion to help pay for other fields in the United States it bought in October from BHP.

Worker-starved Germany plans to ease immigration rules to attract foreign jobseekers and replenish its fast ageing workforce, despite mounting public resistance against new arrivals.

Japan's government revised down its forecasts for economic growth and consumer prices for the current and next fiscal years as natural disasters and weakening export demand weighed on the economy, the Cabinet Office said on Tuesday.

British companies in China believe that the UK's exit from the European Union could boost business in the Asian giant, according to a survey published Tuesday.

World stock markets, the U.S. dollar and oil prices tumbled on Tuesday as fears about a slowing global economy gripped investors, just as the U.S. Federal Reserve looks set this week to deliver its fourth interest rate hike of the year.

Huawei Technologies on Tuesday said it would spend $2 billion over the next 5 years to focus on cybersecurity by adding more people and upgrading lab facilities, as it battles global concerns about risks associated with its network gear.

Twitter Inc shares fell almost 7 percent on Monday after the company said it was investigating unusual traffic that might be from state-sponsored hackers and, in what appeared to be an unrelated issue, a security firm said hackers used the platform to try to steal user data.

Japan's Hitachi on Monday announced plans to buy a majority stake in the power grid business of Swiss-Swedish engineering giant ABB for $6.4 billion, in what would be its biggest ever buyout.