Faltering economic growth will undercut global oil demand this year and next, the International Energy Agency said Friday, citing slowdowns in China and the United States in particular.

"Sluggish economic growth could restrict annual oil demand growth to 0.9 million barrels per day in 2012 and 0.8 mbpd in 2013, with demand averaging 89.6 mbpd and 90.5 mbpd," down from last month's estimates of 89.9 mbpd and 90.9 mbpd, respectively, the IEA said in its latest Oil Market Report.

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, is still growing but the outlook is becoming increasingly clouded by "substantial risks" from the debt crisis, the economy ministry warned Friday.

"In a difficult European environment, the German economy is continuing to show itself to be fairly robust," the ministry said in its latest monthly report.

Several Spanish regions plan to charge pupils who bring their own lunch to school a fee to eat in the cafeteria, in the struggle to bring public deficits under control.

The northeastern region of Catalonia has said it will charge students who bring a packed lunch up to three euros ($3.70) a time to use a school canteen and the adjoining region of Valencia plans a similar move.

First Britain upset the French government by offering a home to any high earners seeking to flee a new top tax band, and now the U.S. state of Mississippi is making a bid to recruit wealthy exiles.

France's new Socialist leader President Francois Hollande plans to slap a tax of 75 percent on all income in excess of a million euros ($1.24 million), and territories with lower rates are hoping for a cash exodus.

The euro has fallen in value against most major currencies in recent months as volatility on the foreign exchange markets has increased in the debt crisis, the European Central Bank said Thursday.

"Between the end of April and early August 2012, the effective exchange rate of the euro depreciated overall amid a renewed increase in volatility," the ECB wrote in its regular monthly bulletin.

Global food prices rose six percent in July after dropping for three months, largely because of a hike in the price of grains and sugar, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization said Thursday.

The FAO's Food Price Index, a monthly measure of changes in a basket of food commodities, was 12 points higher at 213 points but remains far off the record 238 points reached in February 2011, a statement said.

Japan's biggest bank said Thursday it had suspended a London-based trader over the widening interest-rate rigging scandal in Britain that has rocked confidence in financial markets.

"One trader has been told to be on stand-by at home," said a spokesman for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in Tokyo, adding that "we would like to withhold further comment".

Paraguay's new President Federico Franco is talking tough with Argentina and Brazil, threatening not to "give away" energy to his neighbors and instead use power generated by joint projects at home.

"When are Brazil and Argentina going to respect us? When the government tells them, 'Actually, we are going to use our own energy. Paraguay is changing its position. It is no longer going to give away its energy'," Franco said.

InterContinental Hotels Group on Tuesday announced a 39-percent jump in net profits for the second quarter to $121 million (97 million euros) on strong growth in China and the United States.

Following the strong results, IHG said it planned to return $1.0 billion to shareholders. The company's share price was up 6.84 percent to 1,733 pence in late deals on London's FTSE 100 index, which was flat.

Total foreign and domestic investments in Arab states rose slightly last year despite widespread unrest, the Kuwait-based Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corp. said on Tuesday.

The investments, both private and government, increased by 1.2 percent to $496 billion in 2011 from $490 billion in the previous year, the organization said in a report without providing details on the foreign share.