Hong Kong holds edge over Singapore.

A Study rating perennial rivals Hong Kong and Singapore as business hubs gives the overall edge to Hong Kong thanks to factors such as its financial prowess and talent pool, while pointing out Singapore's advantage in technology and detailing shifts in the two cities' office rental markets.

The study, released by property consultancy CBRE on Tuesday, rated Hong Kong and Singapore across seven broad categories. Hong Kong came out on top in three: the scale of its financial industry, its availability of talent and its ample supply of office space.

Sri Lanka crisis: central bank lays out extent of economic problems

Sri Lanka's central bank has laid out the extent of the country's worst economic crisis in more than 70 years.

In its annual report, the bank outlined how last year wages failed to keep up with the soaring cost of everything from food to fuel.

"Several inherent weaknesses" and "policy lapses" helped to trigger the severe economic problems that engulfed the South Asian nation, the bank says.

The bank now expects the economy to return to growth next year.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka forecast the economy will shrink by 2 percent this year, but expand by 3.3 percent in 2024.

The prediction is more optimistic than the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which forecast a contraction in 2023 of around 3 percent and...