GDP

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and ING Groep NV (NYSE: ING) may sell their stakes in two Thailand banks, but their message to Asia's 11th largest economy could very well be, "It's not you, it's us."

While market sentiment for China's growth outlook has been overwhelmingly negative, Nomura's Chief China Economist Zhiwei Zhang remains very bullish.

There were quiet celebrations in the offices of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh late last week after he stunned the country with a slew of steps to revive the tanking economy.

If sales following the iPhone 5 release date are as high as analysts predict, the Apple smartphone could aid the struggling US economy. .

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI: DJI) gained another 53.51 points, or 0.40 percent, on Friday to close at 13,593.37, the highest level in nearly five years. However, many uncertainties remain. Here are four factors that could make -- or break -- the Dow's continued ascent.

Many Argentines are protesting against the policies of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner over her tight controls on the economy amid rising inflation. Fernandez has said that her policies are aimed at supporting the most vulnerable in society and will benefit the majority of people as a whole, though she has been criticized for pursuing a populist agenda at the expese of the upper and middle classes.

The government of India, the world's 10th largest economy by gross domestic product, passed wide-ranging laws on Friday expanding foreign investment in the retail, broadcasting and airline sectors, opening its doors to companies like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) amid slowing growth.

The Communist Party of Vietnam has vowed to target any blogs and websites that are "anti-party" or "anti-state," but government critics have responded with defiance.

The U.S. central bank lowered its forecast for economic growth this year, but it reiterated its expectations for unemployment. Further, the bank said it now expects the Fed's first interest rate hike to take place in 2015.

A new report from UNICEF, the WHO and the World Bank says that under-five mortality has decreased significantly worldwide, but many countries are still not on track to meet their Millennium Development Goals.

China's economic slowdown is expected to reach its nadir in the third quarter, leaving growth for 2012 likely to fall below 8 percent, a level unseen since 1999. While top Chinese leaders remain confident that the world's second-largest economy still has "ample strength" in either monetary or fiscal domains to propel economic growth, economists caution that the $158 billion stimulus unveiled by China may not be all it's hyped up to be.

HSBC has cut its India GDP forecast for the fiscal 2013 to 5.7 percent from the previous forecast of 6.2 percent, citing "the lack of reform traction" and a more "challenging" global economic state of affairs.

orth and South Korea technically remain at war since 1953, when their civil war ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty.

José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, delivered the following State of the Union 2012 speech during a session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on September 12, 2012

Nearly three-hundred people have died in a fire that swept through a garment factory in Karachi, Pakistan, making the inferno one of worst industrial accidents in the country’s history.