Reuters - Factories in China and India cranked up production in March and Japanese business morale rose to its highest in more than a year on signs of improving global demand, boosting hopes for a sustainable economic recovery.

Reuters - Chinese President Hu Jintao told U.S. President Barack Obama their two nations should defuse economic strains through negotiations, but neither leader touched on the yuan dispute in remarks published on Friday.

The Christian Science Monitor - Even new employment figures show the US economy’s strongest job-creation performance in three years, the Obama White House knows that talking to Americans about jobs requires a delicate political dance. The political challenge is to remind voters that progress is being made in battling unemployment as the 2010 congressional elections approach, while at the same time not appearing oblivious to the economic distress felt by the jobless. New figures highlight both sides of the coin. On Friday, the government said employers created 162,000 jobs in March, including 48,000 temporary Census workers. But the same report noted that 15 million Americans are out of work. The number of those who have been jobless six months or more increased to a record 6.5 million. President Obama took his job creation message on the road Friday, traveling to the North Carolina plant of Celgard LLC, which makes components used in lithium batteries. The company recently hired more workers using a $49 million Energy Department grant. Mr. Obama hailed the new jobless numbers, saying, “today is an encouraging day.”

AFP - Timothy Geithner will begin his maiden visit to India as US treasury secretary on Tuesday, hoping to improve an economic relationship that is often eclipsed by Washington's trade with China.

AP - Dominion Resources Inc. CEO Thomas F. Farrell II made $10.4 million last year, about 10 percent less than the previous year as the energy provider's profit fell in the weak economy, according to a calculation by The Associated Press based on government filings.

AP - Oil prices hovered near 18-month highs above $86 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as traders mulled whether a recovering U.S. economy warranted further gains.

Reuters - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday that governments must work to bring more people into the banking system as part of efforts to improve the balance of economic growth.

AFP - Facing unsustainable budget deficits, the United States will have to make difficult choices between higher taxes and social spending, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said.

AFP - US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner held constructive talks on the yuan in China, prompting optimism that Beijing could soon move to change its exchange rate policy, a report said Friday.

Reuters - IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Saturday that public debt in the advanced economies is set to increase significantly and reversing the rise would be a 'tremendous' challenge.

Reuters - Many Bank of Japan policy board members played up the effectiveness of extra monetary easing even as the economy recovers and deflation eases, the minutes of the BOJ's mid-March meeting showed, suggesting it could loosen policy more in the months ahead.

AP - The pillars of Americans' financial security — jobs and home values — will stay shaky well into 2011, according to an Associated Press survey of leading economists.

AP - Oil prices fell for a fifth day to below $84 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as traders mulled whether a slowly recovering U.S. economy justified the recent two-month, 25 percent crude rally.

AP - The deep recession has caused inflation to all but melt away. The problem is that the same severe downturn has also translated into weak income growth.

Reuters - Occupancy rates in hotels in Bangkok, the Thai capital that has been the scene of violent clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces, stand at below 30 percent, a spokesman for Federation of Thai Tourism Associations said on Thursday. 'We were expecting 80-90 pct room occupancy rate in BKK, but I don't think we can make it to 30 pct,' Charoen Wangananont, a spokesman for the Federation of Thai Tourism Associations told local cable news network TNN.

AP - President Barack Obama is in Washington Friday and will focus on national security, the economy and the great outdoors.

Reuters - China should let its yuan currency appreciate to help ease imbalances in the global economy, European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Saturday.

Reuters - Crisis-forged unity among the Group of 20 rich and emerging economies may be fraying before the problems they set out to address are solved.

Reuters - The conditions are not ripe for China to unshackle the yuan from its 21-month-old peg to the dollar, a senior government economist said in comments published on Monday.

Reuters - Asian chipmakers are set to deliver another set of strong results and cement growing views that the global technology sector's recovery is accelerating as an economic recovery boosts corporate and consumer spending.

AFP - The US economy will grow at a faster-than-expected rate of 3.1 percent this year, the IMF said Wednesday, while warning Washington faces a tough balancing act to sustain the fragile recovery.

AP - Economists expect that wholesale prices rose in March, after a sharp fall the previous month, due to higher food and energy costs.

Reuters - Calls for a stronger Chinese currency have been muted among finance leaders gathering for talks among the Group of 20 rich and developing nations.

Reuters - Inflationary expectations are on the rise in China even though inflation itself remains mild, a senior government researcher said on Saturday.

Reuters - Emails sent by Goldman Sachs Group Inc's executives boasting of profits made by betting against risky mortgages highlight the need for transparency in financial markets, senior White House adviser Lawrence Summers said on Sunday.

AP - Oil prices gained above $85 a barrel Monday in Asia as growing investor optimism about the U.S. economy boosted equity and commodity prices.

Reuters - Shanghai unveils to the world on Friday its multi-billion dollar World Expo, which China hopes will be an opportunity to assert its growing global clout and show off the fruits of its economic transformation.

Reuters - Britain's political parties faced increasing pressure on Wednesday to be more honest about the scale of cuts that will be needed after next week's election to get a record budget deficit under control.

AP - Official figures show economic sentiment in the 16 countries that use the euro rose above its long-term average during April despite mounting concerns about the debt crisis afflicting Greece.

AP - Billionaire Warren Buffett says the economy is finally starting to show signs of significant improvement.