China will overtake the United States as the world's biggest luxury car market as early as 2016, as rising incomes and desire for status boost premium auto brands, a consultancy said Monday.

Global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company said China is already the second biggest market for "premium" cars after the United States, with sales of 1.25 million vehicles last year.

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on Sunday accepted the resignation of his finance minister Nabil Qassis, a government statement read.

Qassis, a former president of the Bir Zeit university near Ramallah in the West Bank who joined the government in May 2012, announced on Saturday he was resigning, without giving a reason.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday that Egypt's crumbling economy must "get back on its feet," while on a visit to Cairo aimed at pressing deeply divided parties to reach a political consensus.

"It is paramount, essential, urgent that the Egyptian economy gets stronger, that it gets back on its feet," Kerry told a meeting of business leaders.

Beppe Grillo, whose anti-establishment party unexpectedly captured a quarter of the vote in Italy's inconclusive elections, wants to renegotiate his crisis-hit country's debt, according to a German report on Saturday.

"We are being crushed -- not by the euro but by our debt," the comedian-turned-populist firebrand told German weekly Focus.

A top Chinese banker said Beijing is "fully prepared" for a currency war as he urged the world to abide by a consensus reached by the G20 to avert confrontation, state media reported Saturday.

Yi Gang, deputy governor of China's central bank, issued the call after G20 finance ministers last month moved to calm fears of a looming war on the currency markets at a meeting in Moscow.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on Friday blamed Canada's lower than expected economic growth on "weakness in the global recovery" as he vowed to stay the course to a balanced budget in 2015.

Canada's economy grew 1.8 percent last year, slightly less than the central bank's forecast and down from 2.6 percent in 2011, the government statistics agency announced earlier.

President Barack Obama has reluctantly ordered an $85 billion austerity drive that could slow the U.S. economy and slash jobs, after blaming Republicans for refusing to stop the "dumb" spending cuts.

Obama complied with his legal obligations and initiated the automatic, across-the-board cuts in domestic and defense spending Friday, following the failure of efforts to clinch a deal with Republicans on cutting the deficit.

Official data Friday painted a far from encouraging picture of the European economy, with unemployment running at record and "unacceptable" highs in the eurozone while inflation fell sharply, highlighting the weakness of consumer demand.

Separately, a closely followed manufacturing survey showed the eurozone remained in the doldrums for a 19th consecutive month in February, although it also noted some signs of increased export demand -- a key growth driver.

Greece could avoid slashing wages and pensions more to reduce its deficit if it steps up tax collection, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.

"If Greece can do a better job of collecting taxes, then the government should be able to avoid further wage and pension cuts," IMF spokesman Bill Murray said at a news conference.

EU president Herman van Rompuy warned Thursday that Britain will struggle to win support for its plans to renegotiate its membership of the European Union, and said that trying to exit the bloc could prove costly.

In a speech in London, Van Rompuy urged Britain to stay inside the 27-member group, saying it had a role to play in reforming the union and would have a stronger voice in world affairs than if it went it alone.