Oil prices fall in longest losing streak in a year on hopes of progress in US-Iran talks – business live

The world’s advanced economies have been warned they need to “take action” to reduce their borrowing and bring down debt levels, at a time of surging government borrowing costs, according to the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Kristalina Georgieva told the BBC that global economic shocks have been “pushing debt levels up like a staircase not to heaven”, and that governments have been taking “no action to contain that service cost”. “[It’s] time to take that action,” Georgieva said, adding that “courage” was needed by politicians to take the necessary steps. Her comments come at a time governments, including the UK and US, have seen their borrowing costs soar as ongoing global conflicts have disrupted the oil supply, driving up inflation. Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. Oil prices have fallen for a sixth session, dropping further below $100 a barrel on reports of increased supply from the Middle East, and amid hopes of progress in talks between the US and Iran. Several Asian stock markets have risen for a sixth session with the exception of Chinese indices, riding high on the artificial intelligence wave. Brent crude is down about $1 at $98.32 a barrel, after closing below $100 a barrel yesterday for the first time in more than two weeks. If the downward move is sustained over the day, the six-day declines would be the longest losing run for oil since August 2025, according to Bloomberg. Reuters reported, citing sources, that Saudi Arabia has restarted operations at its east-west pipeline and may have already resumed exports from the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Donald Trump talked of progress in talks with Iran in New York, but also threatened to “annihilate” the country if there was no deal. Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian addresses the UN general assembly later today and according to reports may meet with the US president. Chinese president Xi Jinping arrives in Washington later today for talks with Trump, with speculation a trade truce between the US and China will be extended, and hopes that they can agree a cooperation deal over AI. Trump commented on AI in his speech at the UN yesterday, calling it “super intelligence” and rejecting any attempts to control it. He said: I’m ⁠not going to stifle growth of something that will be bigger than ‌the Industrial Revolution. The buzz around AI has lifted technology stocks and helped South Korea’s Kospi gain nearly 0.7% while the Taiwan stock market rose 0.75%. Japanese markets are closed for the silver holiday. China’s CSI 300 fell 0.5%. European and US stock futures are pointing to a higher open. There has been strong uptake of Meta’s new personal Muse agent, which has sat at the top of US app download charts since its launch a fortnight ago. The dollar has climbed to a two-month high on expectations of interest rate hikes soon. Sterling dipped 0.2% to $1.3316 while the euro eased to its weakest level since July, falling 0.2% to $1.1423. The Agenda 9am BST: Eurozone S&P Global flash manufacturing PMI for September 9.30am BST: UK S&P Global flash manufacturing PMI for September 2.45pm BST: US S&P Global flash manufacturing PMI for September