COLOMBO -- Sri Lanka's GDP growth is set to decelerate to 3.5 percent in 2026 and 3.1 percent in 2027, the World Bank said in its latest Global Economic Prospects - January 2026 report.
Sri Lanka's estimated growth rate in 2025 was 4.6 percent, according to the World Bank. (Sri Lanka-Economy)
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MANILA -- The Philippines' balance of payments (BOP) registered a 827 million U.S. dollars deficit in December 2025, bringing the full-year outcome to a 5.7 billion dollars deficit, the country's central bank said.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Monday that the country's gross international reserves (GIR) reached 110.8 billion dollars as of end-December 2025. (Philippines-BSP)
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TOKYO -- Artificial intelligence (AI) models achieved remarkable results after being used to take on Japan's 2026 Common Test for University Admissions, with OpenAI's model taking top spot with perfect scores in nine subjects, the Nikkei reported on Tuesday.
The experiment was jointly conducted by the Nikkei newspaper and Japanese AI startup LifePrompt. The latest models from major AI companies, including OpenAI and Google, tackled the questions in 15 major subjects from Japan's university entrance examinations held from Jan. 17 to 18. (Japan-AI-Excam)
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BANGKOK -- Thailand conducted a nationwide test of its mobile emergency alert system using cell broadcast technology on Tuesday in a move to mitigate losses from disasters through an effective communication channel.
According to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, the test at 2:00 p.m. local time triggered a "National Alert" signal, which is designed for large-scale and high-impact disasters, on mobile devices across all 76 provinces and Bangkok simultaneously. (Thailand-Emergency Alert) Enditem
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