Sri Lankan business leaders on Friday called for an end to political instability amid public demands for the president to resign over alleged economic mismanagement, warning that failure to do so would lead to economic catastrophe.

Leaders from 23 business associations representing export, import and logistics companies told reporters in the capital, Colombo, that they want lawmakers to "act responsibly and resolutely to implement remedial solutions to halt and then reverse the rapidly deteriorating situation."

Economic and financial experts have reiterated doubts over the willingness of Lebanon's political elite, widely blamed for endemic corruption, to implement the reforms requested by the International Monetary Fund to resuscitate the economy, shortly after Lebanon and the IMF reached a tentative deal.

A former vice governor of Lebanon's central bank, Nasser Saidi, said he had doubts that such reforms would ever materialize.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Friday referred a much-awaited capital control draft law to the joint parliamentary committees, which will now study it before referring it to parliament’s general assembly.

Berri’s move comes a day after Lebanon and the International Monetary Fund reached a tentative agreement for comprehensive economic policies that could eventually pave the way for financial aid for the crisis-hit country, after Lebanon implements wide-ranging reforms.

The IMF announced Thursday that after months of negotiations it reached a staff-level agreement to provide Lebanon with $3 billion in aid to help it emerge from a severe economic crisis.

The country has been battered by triple digit inflation, soaring poverty rates, and the collapse of its currency since a 2020 debt default, and officials in Beirut applauded the announcement as it will open the door to additional financial support.

Lebanon’s central bank, also known as Banque du Liban (BDL), is “counting its gold reserves for the first time in at least three decades,” as the international community “pressures the cash-strapped country to evaluate its assets to qualify for a bail-out,” English-language Emirati newspaper The National reported on Thursday.

“About 20 per cent of the time-consuming exercise has been completed in the past two years,” two senior civil servants told The National.

EU leaders on Wednesday said the bloc will soon have to sanction all of Russia's hydrocarbon exports as they blamed Moscow for "war crimes" discovered in Ukraine, especially in the town of Bucha.

New car sales sank almost 63 percent in Russia in March year-on-year, industry data showed Wednesday, as the West pummels the country with sanctions over Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine.

Russia said Wednesday it had made foreign debt payments on dollar-denominated bonds in rubles, in a new blow to efforts to avoid a sovereign default amid Western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine.

Global equities sank Wednesday on bets the Federal Reserve will act more aggressively to bring inflation under control, while oil prices rebounded.

India and Australia's trade ministers say a shared security partnership with the United States and Japan has helped them strike a trade deal that Australia hopes will reduce its dependence on exports to China.

Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is heading a business mission to the Australian cities of Melbourne, Sydney and Perth to explore new opportunities created by the interim deal signed virtually on Saturday.