Inflation in China accelerated to 2.4 percent year-on-year in April, official data showed Thursday, above market expectations, but analysts said counter-measures were unlikely due to weak economic momentum.

Month on month, the consumer price index (CPI) -- a main gauge of inflation -- increased by 0.2 percent in April, reversing a decrease of 0.9 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.

South Korea unexpectedly trimmed its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points Thursday -- the first cut for seven months aimed at boosting an economy hit by slumping exports.

The move announced by the central Bank of Korea (BOK) leaves the key policy rate at 2.50 percent, following two similar cuts last year in July and October.

President Mohamed Morsi pressed for closer bilateral trade and investment ties with Brazil here Wednesday on the first official visit by an Egyptian leader to Latin America's dominant economic power.

"We want more cooperation with Brazil," Morsi told a press conference after two hours of wide-ranging talks with his Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff.

Qatar has approached International Airlines Group, owner of British Airways and Spain's Iberia, about becoming its biggest shareholder via the purchase of a stake held by struggling Spanish lender Bankia, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

The daily business newspaper, which cited two people familiar with the situation, said Qatar had made an informal approach to IAG to ask whether it would welcome the Gulf nation as an investor.

German industrial output saw a surprisingly robust rise in March driven by a sharp increase in the energy sector, official data showed Wednesday.

Industrial production in Europe's largest economy rose by 1.2 percent in March compared with the previous month, according to provisional seasonally adjusted figures released by the economy ministry.

More than 73 million young people are unemployed around the world and the situation is expected to only get worse, the International Labor Organization said on Wednesday.

"The weakening of the global recovery in 2012 and 2013 has further aggravated the youth jobs crisis and the queues for available jobs have become longer and longer for some unfortunate young job seekers," the U.N.'s labor agency said.

Leading Indian banks have suspended staff on government orders after a media sting operation revealed suspected money laundering at more than 20 financial institutions, reports said Wednesday.

Indian news outlet Cobrapost made the allegations on Monday based on two undercover investigations carried out by its team, leading the finance ministry to call for immediate action against any staff involved.

China swung back to trade surplus in April after posting a rare deficit the previous month, official data showed Wednesday, but analysts cautioned the better-than-expected figures may not reflect reality.

The world's second-largest economy recorded an $18.2 billion trade surplus last month, Customs said in a statement, higher than the median forecast of $15.6 billion in a poll of 12 economists by Dow Jones Newswires.

The state-owned Bank of China has shut the account of a North Korean bank the U.S. accuses of backing Pyongyang's nuclear program, Dow Jones said Tuesday, citing a statement from the Chinese entity.

"The Foreign Trade Bank of North Korea, the country's main foreign-exchange bank, has been told its account has been closed," Dow Jones reported. It would be the first openly acknowledged move by a Chinese institution against North Korean interests in the current stand-off.

A decision by the European Commission to give France two more years to meet its deficit target of three percent will not come "for free", EU President Herman Van Rompuy said on Tuesday.

"The decision is not (formally) taken, neither by the commission nor by the council," he told reporters at a press conference in Stockholm.