ATHENS -- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Saturday a new package of economic measures aimed to alleviate society's strain from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, reforms to keep Greece firmly on the growth trajectory, as well as fresh defense expenditure to further boost the country's deterrent ability.

Outlining his government's economic policy for the next 12 months, during a key policy speech at the Thessaloniki Helexpo Forum, in the city port of Thessaloniki in northern Greece, he announced a series of immediate tax cuts, benefits, reductions in social security contributions and programs to boost liquidity and investments in order to ease burdens from employees, pensioners, the unemployed and businesses. (Greece-PM-Speech)

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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN -- Brunei recorded a 57.8-million-Brunei dollar (42.2-million-U.S. dollar) trade deficit in June 2020 due to a major decrease in exports, marking the first-ever trade deficit since January 2014 when historical data became available.

The latest International Merchandise Trade Statistics released on Saturday by the Department of Economic Planning and Statistics at the Ministry of Finance and Economy showed that Brunei's trade balance in June 2020 recorded a deficit of 57.8 million Brunei dollars compared to a surplus of 39.0 million Brunei dollars in June 2019, a 248.2-percent year-on-year drop. (Brunei-Trade Deficit)

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BEIJING -- China's imports of major commodities including crude oil, iron ore and soybean climbed in the first eight months of the year, as the country's economic activity gradually recovered from the COVID-19 hit, according to customs data.

Imports of crude oil surged 12.1 percent to 368 million tonnes during the January-August period, while refined oil imports rose 1.3 percent to 20.77 million tonnes, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. (China-Economy-Commodity Imports)

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NEW YORK -- U.S. equities declined in the holiday-abbreviated week with the Nasdaq booking its worst week since March as investors rotated out of the tech sector.

For the week ending Friday, the Dow fell 1.7 percent, the S&P 500 dropped 2.5 percent and the Nasdaq shed 4.1 percent. (US-Stocks-Weekly loss)