The Bank of England raised interest rates in the United Kingdom on Thursday to combat surging consumer prices, becoming the first central bank among the world's leading economies to do so since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The increase in the bank's main rate to 0.25% from the record low of 0.1% was a surprise given the rapid spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus across the country, which is already hurting many businesses, particularly those in the hospitality sector.

Turkey's Central Bank again cut a key interest rate Thursday despite soaring consumer prices that are making it difficult for people to buy food and other basic goods, sending the country's currency to record lows against the U.S. dollar.

The bank's monetary policy committee said it is cutting the rate from 15% to 14%, though inflation is running at 21%, according to official data.

The dollar exchange rate on Lebanon’s black market witnessed a major drop on Wednesday morning, hours after the central bank announced in a statement that it would take a host of measures aimed at halting the Lebanese lira’s freefall.

The exchange rate had hit a record high of LBP 29,000 on Tuesday evening before dropping to around LBP 26,450 on Wednesday.

Beirut in December was once a shopping extravaganza, where day-long traffic jams clogged streets decked out with flashing Christmas lights and building-sized billboards advertising champagne and jewelry.

Stocks are opening lower again on Wall Street Tuesday as traders took in the latest sign that inflation is still running high. The S&P 500 index gave up 0.5% in the early going. Technology companies had some of the biggest losses, which helped pull the Nasdaq down 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed. Treasury yields rose after the latest report on inflation, which showed that wholesale prices jumped a record 9.6% in November from a year earlier, more than expected. Federal Reserve policymakers began a two-day meeting Tuesday at which they're expected to speed up the withdrawal of economic stimulus measures.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.

Calling him a "clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman," Time magazine has named Tesla CEO Elon Musk as its Person of the Year for 2021.

Musk, who is also the founder and CEO space exploration company SpaceX, recently passed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the world's wealthiest person as the rising price of Tesla pushed his net worth to around $300 billion. He owns about 17% of Tesla's stock, which sold for almost $1,000 each on Monday.

Geneva prosecutors have fined a Swiss bank for failing to alert money laundering authorities about a portion of more than $100 million from Saudi Arabia that went to former Spanish King Juan Carlos and his ex-lover, but dropped possible charges against his associates in the case.

The Geneva prosecutor's office, in a statement Monday, said it partially dropped an investigation opened three years ago of five people for alleged money laundering, while deciding that the Mirabaud bank had failed to properly communicate with the Swiss money laundering office.

The coronavirus pandemic is not the first crisis to force monetary policymakers into drastic action to avert economic disaster. 

A French court fined Swiss bank UBS 1.8 billion euros ($2.0 billion) on Monday on appeal for its role in helping French residents commit tax fraud.

Major European and Asian stock markets traded mixed Monday, the start of a week set to be dominated by central bank decisions on interest rates amid surging inflation.