Taiwan's bid to become a founding member of China's new regional development bank has been rejected, Beijing said Monday, dashing the island's hopes of having a platform in the institution from the start.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the Beijing-based State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said in a statement that a Hong Kong report the island had failed to become a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was correct.

China suffered an across-the-board decline in trade in March, the government said Monday, days ahead of GDP data expected to show another slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

Exports fell an unexpected 15.0 percent on-year in March to $144.57 billion, the General Administration of Customs said, while imports tumbled 12.7 percent to $141.49 billion.

Oil prices rose in Asia Monday, extending last week's gains but the persistent global supply glut will likely cap advances, analysts said.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate added 31 cents to $51.95 while Brent was up 24 cents at $58.11 in late-morning trade. 

Toyota is planning to build a new plant in northern China as the world's top automaker ramps up investment after a two-year freeze, reports said Saturday.

Proposals for the plant in Tianjin -- due to open in 2018 at the earliest with a capacity of 100,000 cars a year -- should be finalised by the summer, Jiji Press and Kyodo News agency reported.

Argentina's government is extending its price control program aimed at curbing high inflation.

Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said Friday that the program will continue for three more months, until July 7.

A surge in corporate dealmaking helped lift U.S. stocks this week, with General Electric, Royal Dutch Shell and FedEx all unveiling major transactions.

The wave of mergers and acquisitions offset investor wariness as earnings season got underway to low expectations.

Global sales of personal computers resumed their downward trajectory in early 2015 after a modest uptick late last year, surveys showed Thursday.

A survey by Gartner showed worldwide PC shipments totaled 71.7 million units in the first quarter, a 5.2 percent decline from the same period a year ago.

The dollar surged against the euro Thursday after an encouraging U.S. unemployment claims report stoked speculation about the Federal Reserve's plan to raise ultra-low interest rates.

The Labor Department reported that the number of first-time unemployment claims rose last week, but claims filed in the past four weeks fell to a nearly 15-year low, suggesting a stronger labor market.

Aid agencies warned Friday that Kenya's shutting down of money transfer services to Somalia over suspected links to the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab will hit the poorest hardest and jeopordize their operations.

Kenya on Wednesday froze key transfer companies vital for impoverished Somalia, as part of a crackdown on alleged Shebab supporters following the university massacre of almost 150 people by the Islamists last week.

Chinese inflation held steady at 1.4 percent in March, the government said Friday, leaving policymakers further room for monetary stimulus as they try to manage a broad slowdown in the world's second-biggest economy.

The consumer price index (CPI) reading from the National Bureau of Statistics  (NBS) was the same as February, when it rose from January's more than five-year low and slightly better than the median 1.3 percent forecast in a survey of 39 economists by Bloomberg News.