Unemployment in the eurozone eased, with the rate edging down to 11.8 percent in March, according to official data on Friday, with small signs of improvement in Greece's high jobless rate. 

But the ravages of economic crisis on job prospects for young people were also highlighted, particularly in Greece and Spain.

Rolling blackouts have already been hitting neighborhoods of Cairo daily throughout the winter, when electricity usage is lower. Now summer's heat is coming, and Egypt's crippling energy crisis is threatening to mount, creating an immediate political liability for the new president to be elected this month.

The government is scrambling to reduce the impact.

Indonesia has posted a robust monthly trade surplus while inflation eased in April, data showed Friday, in a sign Southeast Asia's top economy is on the road to recovery.

The country was hit hard in 2013 as trade plunged to record deficit, the currency dived and inflation spiraled, but all three indicators have improved in recent months. 

China may be poised to overtake the United States as the world's top economy sooner than expected, according to one measure, but some underwhelmed Chinese would rather have clean air and political freedoms.

The World Bank on Wednesday published a vast study on the rankings of national wealth creation on the basis of 2011 figures.

Australia risks a debt crisis similar to Europe unless efforts are made to bring the budget deficit under control, the head of the first national audit of government spending in 18 years said Thursday.

Tony Shepherd, chair of the National Commission of Audit, recommended gradual cuts worth up to Aus$60-70 billion (U.S.$55.8-65.1 billion) per year within the decade to improve efficiency and productivity across all areas of spending.

The International Monetary Fund approved a $17 billion aid deal for Ukraine on Wednesday, even as Kiev fought to prevent pro-Moscow separatists from grabbing another chunk of the country.

Greenlighting a rescue program for an interim government which took power after an uprising two months ago, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said it was crucial to strengthen Kiev's economy.

Spain's economic recovery will gather pace this year but unemployment is set to remain above 20 percent until 2017, according to government predictions Wednesday.

Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said Spain's economy should grow by 1.2 percent in 2014 and 1.8 percent in 2015 as the country recovers from a double-dip recession that ended late last year and destroyed millions of jobs. The growth figures were upwardly revised from the previous predictions of 0.7 percent and 1.5 percent.

The International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday that Russia is already in recession and slashed its growth forecast for 2014 citing the effect of the Ukraine crisis on investment.

"If we define recession as negative growth in two quarters in a row, then Russia from that point of view is experiencing recession," IMF economist Antonio Spilimbergo was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Spain announced Wednesday its fastest economic growth in six years in the first quarter of 2014 even as it failed to dent a 26-percent jobless rate.

Economic output rose at the quickest pace since a 2008 property crash tipped the nation into a double-dip recession, the National Statistics Institute said in an initial estimate.

More than a decade of work financed with American tax dollars is at stake if bribery and theft are left unabated in Afghanistan, according to a quarterly report released Wednesday by the top auditor of U.S. reconstruction spending in the impoverished nation.

Widespread corruption hampers the government's ability to collect revenue and hinders economic development and the effort to promote accountability, the 260-page report by the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction said.