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.

Japan's central bank kept its ultra-loose monetary policy unchanged in a policy meeting Wednesday, despite data suggesting the economic recovery is weaker than expected.

The Bank of Japan is still monitoring the impact of an April 1 tax hike that is expected to sap growth as consumers adjust to higher costs.

Libya's National Oil Corporation is to resume exports from Zueitina port after declaring an end Tuesday to a force majeure imposed on the terminal blocked by rebels for nine months.

"NOC has announced the lifting of the state of force majeure at the port of Zueitina" which has an export capacity of 100,000 barrels per day (bpd), the company said on its website.

Mortar shells slammed into central Damascus on Tuesday, hitting an educational institute in a barrage that killed at least 12 people and wounded 50, state media reported.

"Twelve citizens were killed and 50 others wounded by terrorists who targeted the Shaghur neighborhood in Damascus with four mortar shells," the SANA news agency said, adding that two shells hit the Badr al-Din al-Hussein institute.

Spain's unemployment rate climbed to nearly 26 percent in the first quarter of 2014, official data showed Tuesday, as millions searched in vain for a job in a halting recovery from recession.

Despite emerging gingerly from a two-year downturn in mid-2013, the latest figures showed Spain still failing to significantly dent one of the highest unemployment rates in the industrialized world.

Samsung Electronics reported Tuesday its net profit had risen 5.9 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to 7.57 trillion won ($7.3 billion) but operating profit declined for a second straight quarter on slowing smartphone revenue.

Alarm bells have been sounding for a while over Samsung's reliance on smartphone sales in mature markets such as Europe and the United States, and increasingly competitive emerging markets such as China.

Oil prices rose in Asian trade Tuesday after the West slapped fresh sanctions on Russia over its role in Ukraine, although gains were capped as the measures were seen as less aggressive than expected.

New York's West Texas Intermediate for June delivery climbed 15 cents to $100.99 in afternoon trade while Brent North Sea crude rose 23 cents to $108.35 for its June contract.