A new industry report released Monday shows China made big strides last year toward an EV-driven future, as domestic sales of all types of electric vehicles rose by 40% in 2024. Sales of gasoline powered cars tumbled, including foreign imports. In 2024, a total of 31.4 million total vehicles were sold in the world’s largest automobile market by sales, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. That marked a 4.5% rise compared with the previous year. Despite the uptick in sales, foreign automobile importers are increasingly finding it hard …

Ethiopia relaunched its stock exchange, the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, on Friday after a 50-year absence. The operations of the Ethiopia Securities Exchange were stopped in 1974 following the takeover by a communist military government. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed described the relaunch as an “historic milestone” for Ethiopia’s economic and financial landscape. “We have officially rung the bell to launch the Ethiopian Securities Exchange — the first stock exchange for our country. Invest in Ethiopia — a fast-growing economy with immense potential and a dynamic trajectory toward prosperity,” he posted on …

WASHINGTON — U.S. hiring picked up unexpectedly in December as employers added a strong 256,000 jobs, another sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of high interest rates.  Job growth rose 212,000 last month from November, the Labor Department reported Friday.  For all of 2024, the economy added 2.2 million jobs, a solid number but down from 3 million in 2023, 4.5 million in 2022 and a record 6.4 million in 2021 as the economy bounded back from massive pandemic layoffs.  The monthly numbers beat forecasters’ expectations of around 155,000 …

London — Britain’s Treasury chief is travelling to China this weekend to discuss economic and financial cooperation between the countries, as the U.K.’s Labour government seeks to reset strained ties with Beijing. The Treasury said Friday that Rachel Reeves will travel to Beijing and Shanghai and will meet with her Chinese government counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng. Reeves’ trip is expected to revive the China-U.K. Economic and Financial Dialogue — annual bilateral talks that have been suspended since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and deteriorating relations in recent years. A …

Beijing — China said Thursday that an investigation had found the European Union imposed unfair “trade and investment barriers” on Beijing, marking the latest salvo in long-running commercial tensions between the two economic powers.  Officials announced the probe in July after Brussels began looking into whether Chinese government subsidies were undermining European competition.  Beijing has consistently denied its industrial policies are unfair and has threatened to take action against the EU to protect Chinese companies’ legal rights and interests.  The commerce ministry said Thursday that the implementation of the EU’s Foreign …

WASHINGTON/TOKYO — U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to block Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel cast a shadow over Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Japan on Tuesday for farewell meetings with Washington’s most important ally in Asia. The rejection, announced on Friday, has jolted U.S. efforts to boost ties with Asian allies just as South Korea’s political crisis potentially complicates a revived relationship between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo. The trilateral alliance is a key plank in the countries’ efforts to counter China’s military buildup. Investment into the …

Washington — Japan’s Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel are filing a federal lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s decision to block a proposed nearly $15 billion deal for Nippon to acquire Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel. The suit, filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, alleges that it was a political decision and violated the companies’ due process. Nippon Steel had promised to invest $2.7 billion in U.S. Steel’s aging blast furnace operations in Gary, Indiana, and Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley. It also vowed not to reduce production capacity …

DETROIT — U.S. new car sales in 2024 continued to rise from their pandemic lows, bolstered by replenished inventories, higher incentives and surging demand for hybrid vehicles, automakers reported on Friday. Sales of new vehicles finished at 15.9 million last year, according to Wards Intelligence, up 2.2% from the prior year, and the highest since 2019. Automakers are projecting strong sales will continue into 2025, although President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed automotive policies, such as removing tax credits for EVs, present a wild card. “We’re carrying significant momentum into 2025,” Rory Harvey, …

A year after a panel blew out of a Boeing 737 Max during flight, the nation’s top aviation regulator says the company needs “a fundamental cultural shift” to put safety and quality above profits. Mike Whitaker, chief of the Federal Aviation Administration, said in an online post Friday that his agency also has more work to do in its oversight of Boeing. Whitaker, who plans to step down in two weeks to let President-elect Donald Trump pick his own FAA administrator, looked back on his decision last January to ground …

Washington — President Joe Biden has made good on his months of public opposition to the proposed purchase of American company U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, announcing Friday he is blocking the $14.9 billion takeover.   The acquisition would “place one of America’s largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains,” he said in a statement. He did not elaborate on how the deal would jeopardize national security. The collapse of the proposed acquisition represents a victory for workers of the …

Tesla reported its first fall in yearly deliveries on Thursday as lucrative year-end incentives for the Elon Musk-led EV maker’s aging line up and the new Cybertruck pickup failed to lure customers wary of high borrowing costs.  Shares of the company fell about 6%. Musk had earlier predicted “slight growth” in 2024 deliveries and offered a range of promotions, including interest-free financing and free fast-charging, to boost sales.  But reduced European subsidies, a shift in the United States toward lower-priced hybrid vehicles and tougher competition, especially from China’s BYD, hurt …

NEW YORK — U.S. oil production rose 260,000 barrels per day month-over-month to a record 13.46 million bpd in October as demand surged to the highest levels since the pandemic, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed on Tuesday. U.S. oil output has grown rapidly this year as drilling operations became more efficient, even as concerns of oversupply have weighed heavily on prices for the commodity amid weaker-than-expected demand growth, especially in China, the top oil-importing nation. Year-over-year, U.S. oil production rose 2.3% in October, while West Texas Intermediate crude …

new york — Global stock markets mostly fell Monday in jittery holiday trading ahead of a potentially tumultuous 2025 that will see Donald Trump return to the White House.  Wall Street’s three main indices slumped to end the day, adding to losses Friday that ended Wall Street’s usual holiday-period “Santa Claus rally.”  “We can’t drive major conclusions in a holiday-shortened and thin-trading-volume week, but last week’s price action looked pretty close to the narrative of rotation from tech to non-tech stocks that many investors expect to be the theme of next …

A different approach to energy is at the center of President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to bring down the cost of living for Americans. But as VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, Trump’s plans could be complicated by a complex global interdependence on oil and gas supplies. …

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her agency would need to start taking “extraordinary measures,” or special accounting maneuvers intended to prevent the nation from hitting the debt ceiling, as early as January 14, in a letter sent to congressional leaders Friday afternoon.  “Treasury expects to hit the statutory debt ceiling between January 14 and January 23,” Yellen wrote in the letter addressed to House and Senate leadership, at which point extraordinary measures would be used to prevent the government from breaching the nation’s debt ceiling — which has been …

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Authorities in Brazil said Friday they are probing Chinese auto giant BYD and one of its contractors for suspected “trafficking” of Chinese workers building a factory in the South American country.  Federal prosecutors in Brazil are weighing possible criminal action after labor inspectors found 163 Chinese workers “in slave-like conditions” at the construction site in the northeast state of Bahia, a government statement said.  The workers, employed by BYD contractor Jinjiang Open Engineering, were viewed as “victims of international trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation,” …

The World Bank raised on Thursday its forecast for China’s economic growth in 2024 and 2025, but warned that subdued household and business confidence, along with headwinds in the property sector, would keep weighing it down next year. The world’s second-biggest economy has struggled this year, mainly due to a property crisis and tepid domestic demand. An expected hike in U.S. tariffs on its goods when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January may also negatively impact China’s growth. “Addressing challenges in the property sector, strengthening social safety nets, …

BEIJING/TOKYO — Talks between China and Japan’s foreign ministers in Beijing have paved way for Japan to host China’s foreign affairs chief next year, and mutual agreement to hold a security dialog as soon as possible, Japan said on Wednesday.  No details were given for when the events will take place but Japan’s Takeshi Iwaya told reporters after his meeting and a working lunch with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that both agreed on continued high-level talks, including potentially an economic dialog during the 2025 visit.  The one-day visit is Iwaya’s first …

Major banks and business groups sued the Federal Reserve on Tuesday, alleging the U.S. central bank’s annual “stress tests” of Wall Street firms violate the law. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ohio, claims the Fed’s practice of determining how big banks perform against hypothetical economic turmoil, and assigning capital requirements accordingly, do not follow proper administrative procedure. Plaintiffs included the Bank Policy Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Bank Association. The lawsuit marks the latest example of the banking industry growing bolder and …

TOKYO — Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to work toward a merger, forming world’s third-largest automaker by sales as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels. The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday and that smaller Nissan alliance member Mitsubishi Motors also had agreed to join the talks on integrating their businesses. Honda’s president, Toshihiro Mibe, said Honda and Nissan will pursue unifying their operations under a joint holding company. Honda will initially lead the new management, …

Washington — President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Stephen Miran, a Treasury Department adviser in his first administration, would be the chair of his Council of Economic Advisers. The council advises the president on economic policy and is composed of three members, including the chair. The council assists in the preparation of an annual report that gives an overview of the country’s economy, reviews federal policies and programs and makes economic policy recommendations. Earlier this year, Miran and economist Nouriel Roubini authored a hedge fund study that said the U.S. …

PARIS — Pastry chef Arnaud Delmontel rolls out dough for croissants and pains au chocolat that later emerge golden and fragrant from the oven in his Paris patisserie. The price for the butter so essential to the pastries has shot up in recent months, by 25% since September alone, Delmontel says. But he is refusing to follow some competitors who have started making their croissants with margarine. “It’s a distortion of what a croissant is,” Delmontel said. “A croissant is made with butter.” One of life’s little pleasures — butter spread …

Amazon.com workers at seven U.S. facilities walked off the job early on Thursday during the holiday shopping rush, aiming to pressure the retailer into contract talks with their union.  Warehouse workers in cities including New York, Atlanta and San Francisco are taking part in the “largest” strike against Amazon, said the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents about 10,000 workers at 10 of the firm’s facilities.  The company, however, said it does not expect any effect on its operations during one of the busiest times of the year.  Unions represent …

Bangkok — For many countries in Southeast Asia, Chinese investment and tourism are key to their economies. However, cheap low-quality Chinese products that are flooding markets across the region are also raising concerns about how they are undercutting local businesses, experts say. That is forcing countries like Thailand to find ways to combat onslaught of low-priced goods. Last year, bilateral trade between Thailand and China was more than $126 billion, with direct Chinese foreign investment heavily contributing to the Thai economy. Three of Thailand’s main economic industries are manufacturing, agriculture and …

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday by a quarter-point — its third cut this year — but also signaled that it expects to reduce rates more slowly next year than it previously envisioned, largely because of still-elevated inflation. The Fed’s 19 policymakers projected that they would cut their benchmark rate by a quarter-point just twice in 2025, down from their estimate in September of four rate cuts. Their new projections suggest that consumers may not enjoy much lower rates next year for mortgages, auto loans, credit …

NAIROBI, KENYA — Kenya’s president said Tuesday that a mass livestock vaccination campaign will continue despite fears of some herders and farmers that the inoculations will somehow hurt their animals. Kenyan President William Ruto lashed out at those objecting to a Ministry of Agriculture livestock vaccination program, which the ministry says is aimed at blocking the spread of several diseases and making the livestock meet international standards. Critics have questioned the effectiveness of the vaccines, and some livestock farmers expressed concern — not backed by any evidence — that the vaccine …