Japan's core consumer inflation likely slowed in January from the previous month, a Reuters poll showed, reinforcing expectations the country's central bank will lag well behind other economies in raising interest rates.

Volkswagen's works council chief Daniela Cavallo said the carmaker must do more to understand the Chinese market in order to capture greater market share, after missing its electric vehicle sales targets in the country last year.

Already rapid house price growth in Britain hit a new six-month high in January but momentum in the housing market could soon fade because of a growing cost-of-living squeeze, a closely-watched survey showed on Thursday.

(Reuters) -The Federal Reserve will have to move faster than it has in the past to remove accommodation and tame inflation that is well above target, but it may not be necessary to start the liftoff in interest rates with a half-percentage-point hike in March, Cleveland Fed Bank President Loretta Mester said on Wednesday.

Western Digital Corp said on Wednesday certain materials at two of its manufacturing units in Japan, operated by joint-venture partner Kioxia Holdings Corp, were contaminated and will result in reduced availability of flash storage devices.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments to Europe late last year showed Russia could not use gas as great leverage over Europe, and the gas shortfall supported efforts to build more LNG capacity on European shores, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said on Wednesday.