More than 1,000 tractors rolled into Paris on Thursday as farmers attempted to clog up the capital's roads in protest at their plummeting incomes.

Tractors were lined up at the busy Nation roundabout in the east of the city, but Parisians heeded calls to avoid using their cars and traffic was less congested than normal during the morning rush hour.

Swiss authorities said Thursday they had frozen tens of millions of dollars in assets as part of an investigation into Malaysia's troubled state investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). 

The Swiss attorney general's office further confirmed that criminal proceedings had been opened against two executives of the fund, which has been at the centre of mounting anger over Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's tenure. 

After presenting Brazil's first ever budget deficit, President Dilma Rousseff promised Wednesday that her government will work hard to get back in the black.

"We are being straightforward. And we are showing, clearly, that there is a problem," she said at a news briefing.

The European Central Bank may have to consider fresh policy measures to prevent deflation in the single currency area, but will not move at its meeting Thursday, analysts said. 

"After all the Greek excitement over the summer, the ECB had probably been hoping for a very ordinary and dull meeting this week; to slowly move from vacation into business mode," said ING DiBa economist Carsten Brzeski.

Greece raised Wednesday 1.137 billion euros ($1.280 billion) in an auction of six-month treasury bills at the same 2.97 percent interest rate it last sold them at last month, the Greek Public Debt Management Agency said.

Since the last auction on August 5, Athens and its international creditors agreed a third huge international bailout for the debt-stricken country, worth 86 billion euros over three years.

A boom in cashed-up visitors from China and India has helped Australia record its strongest tourism year since the Sydney Olympics, officials said Wednesday, with more than Aus$33 billion (U.S.$23.1 billion) pumped into the economy.

The government-run Tourism Research Australia's International Visitor Survey showed that seven percent more people made the trip in the year to June 30 to reach a new high of 6.6 million -- the best since the hugely successful Games were held in 2000.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde on Wednesday declared Asian economies were doing "pretty well" despite the volatility caused by China's slowdown and unease on global financial markets.

Lagarde's comments in Indonesia come as financial markets gyrate over concerns about the health of China's economy -- the world's second-largest -- and its effect emerging economies and their currencies.

Canada fell into recession in the first half of the year, posting its weakest results since the 2008 global financial crisis, government data confirmed Tuesday.

The figures add to escalating fears about the health of the global economy, with world stock markets plunging farther on Tuesday as more gloomy evidence emerged of China's economic slowdown -- China has been a major engine of global growth.

Millions of India's workers have vowed to go on strike on Wednesday against right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "anti-labor" economic policies.

Ten major unions have called the nationwide strike for 24 hours over the government's pro-business initiatives, after recent talks with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley broke down.

Further signs of slowing in the world's second-biggest economy sent shudders through global markets Tuesday, adding to the worldwide sense of crisis over China's financial management.

European stock markets plunged at the opening, taking their lead from Asia, where bourses lost ground after the worst figures in three years from Chinese factory managers.