as fighting intensifies in the middle east, the international monetary fund's chief economist tells us whether geopolitical tensions could weigh on economic growth. and china's largest property developer faces a key test next week. we look at the implications for the world's second—largest economy. hello and welcome to asia business report with me, arunoday mukharji. let's start with the world bank and the international monetary fund, which are holding their annual meeting currently in morocco. the imf�*s chief economist says the global economy is limping along and not sprinting. he's also concerned economic

about the economic uncertainty that will come from the conflict between israel and hamas as the death toll continues to rise. the bbc�*s economics editor faisal islam sat down pierre—olivier gourinchas and asked if the global economy is heading in the right direction. well, things are going in the right direction. what we're seeing is despite these large shocks that you describe, the world economy is still standing. no global recession, no massive slowdown that would put us into, you know, huge unemployment rates. we haven't seen that. we've seen a surge in inflation. but inflation is sort of coming down now, both headline inflation and core inflation. so that's the good news. things are improving. the global economy has been resilient. at the same time, the growth numbers we have — around 3% for this year, 2.9% for next year — this is way below historical average. so the global economy is limping along. it's not sprinting, but it's been resilient. right.

do you from this point see... there are areas where you've been disappointed — china's growth, for example, has been a disappointment. so the other story, which is really important, is divergence. what we're saying is, you know, the number hasn't changed very much, actually, from our previous round of forecasts back injuly or even relative to april. i mean, we were around 3% for 2023 injuly as well. but there's been quite a bit of reshuffling. and the reshuffling — we see some countries doing better than expected. the us is among those. japan has been doing better than expected among advanced economies. among emerging market economies, a number of them have been doing better than expected — india, brazil, russia. and then there are a bunch of countries that have been doing worse. and among the countries that have been doing worse, you know, you have the euro area. it's been revised down about 0.2 percentage point, and china, 0.2 percentage point. so we have this sort of reconfiguration. countries are in

a different space.

let's turn now to china's property sector because next week, country garden could be joining a growing list of chinese developers that have failed to honor their debts. country garden is due to make a $15 million payment to bondholders on the 17th of october, and if it misses that, all its international bonds could be considered in default. well, the property giant has already warned that it expects it will not be able to meet all of its international debt obligations within the relevant grace period. here is our business reporter sudhanshu tiwari with more on china's deepening property crisis. they were once two of china's biggest and most successful companies building houses for ordinary people who invested their life savings in a place they could call home. now the writings on the wall with country garden admitting it can't pay back its debt. the company, china's largest property developer, has roughly $187 billion in liabilities. country garden has been

selling off assets to try and raise cash. it's also been negotiating with creditors to restructure its debt and delay payments. the problem is its apartments aren't selling one of the few ways it can raise funds. pre—sales on unfinished apartments, an important indicator for future revenue, are down 81% from the same time last year. evergrande is another giant property developer. it has even more debt than country garden. $300 billion worth of liabilities in china alone. authorities have launched a criminal investigation into its billionaire founder. it's been trying to restructure its debt for two years, but those discussions haven't gone well. and now investors say the company is so big and so indebted, it is at risk of what they call a messy collapse. the struggles of both these companies have put more pressure on china's economy, which is already facing a widespread property slump, a decline in exports and weak consumer spending

after covid—i9. even though both country garden and evergrande were thought of as too big to fail, there is no sign beijing will step in to save them for now. beijing has asked both companies to prioritise, completing and delivering the homes they've promised to build. i spoke to heron lim, a greater china economist with moody's analytics. so i think at moody's analytics, our base case still sees that there is not going to be a domestic and this will turn ugly very quickly. and what would a default by country garden really mean for the property sector as a whole in china, which has been distressed, as we've been reporting? so the concern is that from also from your reporting that the not just country garden but also immigrants and other of property developers, well, if they continue to default on their international obligations and their offshore bonds payments, that leads

to essentially a lack of liquidity, because the burden of financing will turn to the onshore lenders, such as domestic banks. and also the more the property buyers that have continued to finance and repay their loans at this time. so the longer the uncertainty goes, the debt burden could actually lead to a problem with within the domestic market. and that is where we are really concerned. as i mentioned, the crisis of confidence that could really occur in the domestic market is something that we are watching very closely at moody's analytics. let's take you to new york now, where sam bankman—fried's fraud trial has been taking place. and he has pleaded not guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges related to the collapse of ftx, the now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange that he ran. well, thejury has been hearing testimony from his former colleagues, including his one—time girlfriend, caroline ellison.

0ur north america business correspondent erin delmore has more. the government has at least three key witnesses that it wants to showcase in this trial. but make no mistake, caroline ellison is their star. that's because she's the former ceo of alameda research. that's the crypto hedge fund that sam bankman—fried founded. she's also the former romantic partner of sam bankman—fried, and she spoke about both rules today. she talks about having a personal closeness with mr bankman—fried, but also saying that at times she felt awkward around him because she was dating her boss and because she felt neglected in their personal relationship. and she said that in the business he was in the driver's seat, that she took direction from him, she deferred to him and that she reported up to him. and at one point today, she talked about alameda research using $14 billion of ftc�*s customer funds to pay back lenders and to make investments. she said it also had the benefit of improving the look of alameda as balance sheet, making it look less risky to potential investors.

she said she did that at the direction of mr bankman—fried. that was the through line in her testimony today. erin, what can we expect next in the trial? now, miss ellison is just one piece of the prosecution's showcase here. we do expect her to continue her testimony tomorrow. we also expect them to call in nishad singh, who's a former co—founder of f2 and former director of engineering. beyond that, we expect them to bring people who have lost money using the ftc�*s crypto exchange. a really big question, though, is whether mr bankman—fried himself will choose to testify. we don't know. it is his right and it would be highly unusual in a case like this, but it would also give him a chance to make his own case in front of the jury. the footwear is around $46 per

share. the footwear is around $46 per share, , .,, the footwear is around $46 per share. , ., share. some people have described _ share. some people have described them _ share. some people have described them as - share. some people have described them as the i share. some people have - described them as the worlds ugly issue. nevertheless, it has become a global mega brand and this year they saw a further boost when their featured in the movie. —— shoe. pepsi and great to connect gatorade reported in exceeding profit. the chief financial officer said in an interview that the firm was not seeing any impact on the popularity of weight—loss drugs which could alter consumption patterns. all right, before we go very quickly, a look at the markets. major equity markets mostly rallied as top federal reserve officials suggested a recent spike in us treasury yields could prevent more interest rate hikes. that's how the us markets close there. it's up on your screens, but we'll have much more on our bbc news website as well. that's all for the moment. do stay on with bbc news.

bbc news — bringing you different stories from across the uk. i suppose getting towards the end of my pr in london career, i thought, "where shall i go? "what shall i do to earn my living?" and one of the things i really enjoyed was gardening. so i went to college. the garden monique has created here has just been accredited by the organisation which sets the global standard for botanic gardens. it's among just ten in the uk. it gives you that recognition that you've achieved a level that means that you — it's hard to describe — that you are as best as you can be. botanic gardens, or whether you're a national collection

holder, you are merely guardians and you're here to preserve what nature has provided for future generations. trees are the focus of a series of events at the garden this month called arbour. and it's really a celebration of trees and what trees give us and how trees inspire us, how they shelter us, how they feed us. am i a crazy tree person? yes. hey, i'm zof with the catch—up. tonight, holly willoughby quits this morning, labour comes to liverpool and something strange falling from the sky. but first, our top story, an update on the ongoing war in the middle east. there's been massive air strikes overnight in the southern israeli city of ashkelon, after hamas militants warned people to leave by 5pm local time. israel says its continuing

to bomb the gaza strip after hitting 200 targets overnight. and hamas has taken dozens of hostages, saying it won't negotiate until the end of the battle. lots of people have been killed in gaza and israel by the strikes so far. next, the labour conference is under way in liverpool, and keir starmer has said a labour government would reform the nhs, put more police officers on the streets, build new towns and 1.5 million new homes. the day wasn't all smooth sailing, though, as he was interrupted by a glittery protester, who was later arrested. it didn't deter him from his main message, though. some other stories now. holly willoughby has announced she'll be quitting this morning after 14 years. she told fans on her instagram she feels she had to make this decision for her and herfamily. last week, a man was charged over an alleged

plot to kidnap her. and time now for ten seconds of spiders — brace yourself! that's right, they've been falling from the sky in some parts of california. people there have been spotting clumps of webs, as you can see there, on people's cars. that would be absolutely terrifying. i would be no good in california. if i see a spider in my room, i literally run a mile. you're all caught up now. see you later.

hello and welcome along to sportsday with me, sarah mulkerrins. coming up: uefa confirm the uk and ireland will host the 2028 euros, with a new stadium in prospect for northern ireland. england bounce back at the cricket world cup — dawid malan stars with the bat in their victory over bangladesh. and we speak to former fi champion nigel mansell on his memories of success, ahead of selling some of his famous possessions.