China has given debtridden Sri Lanka the financing assurances required by the IMF to unlock a USD 2.9 billion bailout package for the country, days after India strongly backed the island nation's efforts to secure the loan from the global lender to recover from its worstever economic crisis.

"India is promoting a just and equitable growth for all in the world during its G20 presidency, while also making significant progress on the most pressing domestic challenges. India’s G20 presidency comes at a crucial time, Prime Minister Modi’s leadership is critical in this fractured world," World Economic Forum's Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab said.

Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials are scheduled to kick-start parleys from Tuesday for accomplishing the ninth review under the Extended Fund Facility during which the fiscal slippages and reconciliation of figures will be the major topic of discussion.

Shell injected nearly $1.5 billion in cash and credit into its British energy retail business in 2022 to help it weather huge volatility in power prices that caused the collapse of several rival UK utilities. Shell Energy Retail, its UK business, has 1.4 million customers, while its German business has 110,000 and the Dutch business 15,000.