The archipelago nation of 270 million people, Southeast Asia's biggest economy, is seeking to modernise its military but has lagged its regional peers in recent years.

Lebanon is one of nine Arab nations using an algorithm-powered poverty assessment formula funded by the World Bank that ranks welfare applicants according to dozens of different data points.

Price increases affected everyone but poorer people were hit the hardest because they had to spend more on food and fuel, making it difficult to save money and pay for essentials including health care and education.

A financial meltdown that started in 2019 has weakened the currency by more than 90%, paralysed the financial system and frozen depositors out of their savings.

The company has been narrowing its losses and aims to break even by the end of this year.

Faced with a budget hole of US$42 billion so far this year, Russian officials acknowledged the need for more efficient budget spending, but clashed over the prudence of further increases in the tax burden.

Hammered out between Democratic President Joe Biden and the Republicans in the House of Representatives, the measure suspends the debt ceiling through 2024, slightly cutting government spending next year.

Some analysts have proposed that the Treasury can bypass the crisis by minting a multitrillion-dollar platinum coin and putting it in the government's account, an idea widely seen as an outlandish gimmick.

In 2022, US discretionary spending reached US$1.7 trillion, accounting for 27% of the overall US$6.27 trillion spent, according to federal figures.

The local pound has lost more than 98% of its value and diplomats have been expressing concern for months that the increasingly cash-based economy could hide growing illicit flows of money.

The debt ceiling raise is usually an uncontroversial annual procedure but this year the Republican Party has turned the threat of default into a powerful lever to try and force Biden to accept spending cuts.

The Home Office, which has responsibility for policing and national security, accounted for the biggest portion of the total, with costs of £73.7 million.