The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has said global gross domestic product will grow at 5.6 percent this year if vaccination rollouts are fast and effective across the world.

In its latest Interim Economic Outlook, the Paris-based organization says that world output is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels by mid-2021, and the global economy is expected to grow by four percent next year.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is urging the Biden administration to crank up its 5G technology, warning that “China is about 10-times ahead of the U.S.”

Schmidt’s remarks segue into the raging debate over China’s Huawei, the world’s leading 5G technology company, which came to the fore during the Trump administration.

Early in February, Schmidt told Congress there is an urgent need to increase the pace of technology innovation to keep up with China.

The U.S. Senate has passed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package as Democrats rush to send out a fresh round of aid, which they say will bolster the country through the final stages of the pandemic.

The chamber approved the plan in a party line vote as Republicans questioned the need for another broad spending package.

The Democratic-held House aims to pass the bill in the coming days and send it to President Joe Biden for his signature before a March 14 deadline to renew unemployment aid programs.

The legislation includes direct payments of up to $1,400 to most Americans, a $300 weekly boost to jobless benefits into September, and an expansion of child tax credit for one year.

The World Intellectual Property Organization says China was the biggest source of applications for international patents in 2020, for the second consecutive year.

A report says international patent filing in the last year continued to grow amid the COVID-19 pandemic's vast human and economic toll.

The organization says China filed over 68,000 applications in 2020, remaining the largest user of the Patent Cooperation Treaty system.

It is followed by the United States with over 59,000 applications.

China's top banking and insurance regulator says the country has made "decisive achievements" in preventing and addressing financial risk in its banking and insurance sectors.

From 2017 to 2020, banking system assets grew at an average rate of 8.3 percent annually, while the insurance sector saw its total assets expand at 11 percent on average per year.

China disposed 8.8 trillion yuan, or about 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars, in non-performing loans, exceeding the amount of the past 12 years combined.

Meanwhile, the banking regulator also points out that financial bubbles, the core problem in the real-estate sector, is the biggest ‘gray rhino’ in the financial system.

China's homemade large passenger aircraft C919 won its first commercial contract on Monday.

China Eastern Airlines, one of the country's largest airlines headquartered in Shanghai, signed a contract to buy five C919 jetliners from its developer COMAC.

The first plane is expected to be delivered within the year.

Once delivered, the brand-new planes will be used for domestic flight routes connecting Shanghai and several other major cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

China's economy grew by 2.3 percent year-on-year in 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, China managed to bring its economic growth back to a pre-pandemic rate, the only major economy in the world to record positive economic growth.

Its full-year GDP exceeded 100 trillion yuan, or $15.5 trillion, for the first time.

Based on the weighted average exchange rates for the year, China's GDP is tipped to account for 17% of the global economy in 2020.

China's state asset regulator says the country will continuously urge state-owned enterprises to strengthen the prevention and control of debt risks.

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economic downturn, and the U.S. crackdown, China's centrally administered SOEs saw net profits rise 2.1 percent to 1.4 trillion yuan, or 216 billion U.S. dollars, last year.

China has launched a three-year campaign to reform its SOEs. The ongoing process is entering what some refer to as the “deep-water zone.”

Bitcoin tumbled 17 percent on Tuesday, sparking a sell-off across cryptocurrency markets as investors grew nervous at its high valuations.

The cryptocurrency suffered its biggest daily drop in a month, falling as low $45,000 per coin. The drop extended a slump of nearly one-fifth from a record high on Sunday.

The cryptocurrency market has been running hot this year, as big money managers begin to take the asset class seriously and have made large purchases.

The U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee has approved legislation with $1.9 trillion in new coronavirus relief.

The measure passed the panel on a largely party-line vote of 19-16, as the U.S. death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic surpassed 500,000.

The sweeping legislation is intended to stimulate the U.S. economy and carry out President Joe Biden's proposals to provide additional money for COVID-19 vaccines and other medical equipment.