Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse on Wednesday said its first quarter profit rose sharply to 1.303 billion Swiss francs (1.1 billion euros, $1.38 billion) from 44 million francs a year ago.

The significant jump in net profit is largely because the bank was weighed down by an accounting loss on its own debt during the same period last year.

A consortium of Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and France's Areva are on track to win a deal to build a $20 billion nuclear power station in Turkey, a report said on Wednesday.

The top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo would likely sign the deal with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a visit to Turkey next week as part of a four-nation trip that ends on May 4.

Iran's Finance Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said Tuesday that international sanctions had pushed inflation above 30% and was causing "a lot of trouble" but that Iran's nuclear drive would not be halted.

Lashing out at measures by the United Nations, United States and European Union, Hosseini said the Iranian economy was increasingly gearing up to produce at home the goods that it cannot import.

Iraq's overall oil exports, which account for the lion's share of government income, were up in March but average daily exports fell, oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said on Tuesday.

Iraq exported 74.9 million barrels of oil in March, an average of about 2.4 million barrels per day, compared to 71 million barrels in February, or about 2.54 million bpd, Jihad said.

Spain's struggling economy logged a 0.5 percent contraction in the first quarter of 2013 due to falling internal demand, the central bank said on Tuesday.

"During the first quarter of 2013, the Spanish economy continued its path of contraction, but at a slower pace compared to the end of last year," the Bank of Spain said in its monthly economic bulletin for April.

Sixteen Asia-Pacific countries are set to start talks next month on a free trade zone that would cover over half the world's population, according to a document obtained by Agence France Presse Tuesday.

The start of negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are planned despite deep rifts among potential members, including China, Japan and Southeast Asian nations, over rival territorial claims.

South Africans, it seems, just can't stop spending.

Roads in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban are jam-packed with more BMWs, Mercedes Benz and even Ferraris than you can shake a gearstick at.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on Tuesday backed Japan's bid to end years of deflation, but called on Tokyo to step up efforts to shrink its huge debt pile.

In an annual country report, the 34-member OECD described the new government's bid to reverse falling prices with huge stimulus measures as "most encouraging".

Spain's population fell last year the first time since annual records began in 1998 as immigrants left in droves because of a steep recession that has tipped one in four people in the country out of work, official data showed Monday.

There were 47.1 million residents in Spain as of the first of January, 205,788 fewer than during the same time last year, according to provisional figures from the national statistics institute.

Greece will be offering residence to non-EU investors purchasing or renting property over 250,000 euros ($326,000), in a bid to revive its moribund real estate industry, officials said on Monday.

The initiative, voted into law by parliament last week, comes in response to strong demand from Arab, Chinese and Russian investors, the officials from the interior ministry and property groups told a news conference.