A Japanese government report Friday said the economy was "recovering", its first use of the word since the 2008 global financial crisis, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe works to revive years of tepid growth.

Tokyo's monthly checkup on the world's third-largest economy used some of its most upbeat language in years as it pointed to a pick-up in consumer and capital spending.

The Turkish currency plunged further on Thursday as the government grappled with its worst crisis in years, hitting a new low of 2.20 lira to the dollar.

In late morning trading, the lira was changing hands at 2.2047 to the dollar and 3.0058 to the euro. The Istanbul stock exchange was also down 1.0 percent at 67,452.75 points.

The growing gulf between the rich and the poor represents the biggest global risk this year, the World Economic Forum declared Thursday ahead of this month's Davos summit.

The institution issued the gloomy warning in its annual Global Risks survey, published before its annual get-together of decision-makers at the Swiss mountain resort of Davos from January 22-25.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Air New Zealand on Thursday announced an alliance to expand services to both countries and boost their global reach as they look to capitalize on growing tourism traffic.

The alliance will enable SIA to operate its Airbus A380 superjumbos to New Zealand for the first time, progressively replacing daily services using the smaller Boeing 777-300ER, the firms said in a joint statement.

The French state has raised 451 million euros ($614 million) by selling a one percent stake in European aircaft and defense corporation Airbus Group, the economy minister said Thursday.

The divestment, of around 8 million shares to institutional buyers, brings France's stake in the publicly traded group to 11 percent -- the same as Airbus Group partner Germany.

Europe took a key step towards tighter regulation of financial markets late Tuesday when the European Parliament and negotiators for the 28 member states agreed a deal in principle after two years of talks.

The new rules for markets in financial instruments, known as MiFID II, aim to close loopholes in existing legislation to curb speculative trading in commodities and regulate high-frequency trading so as better to protect investors and make markets safer.

The German economy, Europe's biggest, saw growth nearly halved last year as the sluggish global economy and recession in its European neighbors weighed on activity, official data showed on Wednesday.

German gross domestic product (GDP) grew by just 0.4 percent in 2013, down from 0.7 percent a year earlier, the federal statistics office Destatis calculated in preliminary data.

The world's biggest mobile network is ready to offer Apple's iPhone, but while the U.S. technology giant has declared China its biggest future market, it faces an uphill battle to unseat Samsung and homegrown competitors.

Majority state-owned China Mobile has more than 760 million customers but for years it has declined to provide the iPhone as the two companies argued over commercial terms.

Japan Airlines has grounded another one of its Dreamliner jets after "white smoke" was seen outside the cockpit window during maintenance, a year after the aircraft suffered a months-long global grounding over battery problems.

The carrier said that a technician at Tokyo's Narita airport, who was working on the parked plane before its departure to Bangkok Tuesday afternoon, first noticed what appeared to be smoke outside the cockpit window and then a battery system warning.

Negotiators from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives unveiled a $1 trillion spending bill late Monday, eliminating the threat of another government shutdown, at least until October.

The high-stakes omnibus spending bill sets discretionary spending limits line by line for each federal agency until September 30, when the 2014 fiscal year ends.