Momentum is building towards a pan-Pacific trade agreement, representatives of Australia and the United States said Saturday as talks between trade ministers began in Sydney.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would encompass 40 percent of the global economy and include 12 nations, has been the subject of negotiations for years.

French carmaker Renault chairman, Carlos Ghosn, said Saturday that he expects slower growth in Europe's auto market next year as it continues to recover from the global economic crisis.

Ghosn, who is also Renault's chief executive officer, said the European market was growing at six percent so far this year -- the best since the 2007 crisis.

Growth of the British economy slowed in the third quarter of this year, official data showed on Friday in a context of concerns over the uncertain global outlook.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.7 percent between July and September from output in the previous three months, the Office for National Statistics said in an initial estimate.

Russia's ruble slumped to a new all-time low on Friday as the economic fall-out from the Ukraine crisis and lower oil prices caused the finance minister to call for a "back-up" 2015-2017 budget.

For the first time it took more than 53 rubles to buy one euro, and the rate against the dollar topped 41.92 with speculation swirling that Standard and Poor's could cut its rating for Russia to a "speculative" level.

Consumer confidence in Germany has stopped falling, as households appear to be no longer fazed by concerns about the economic fallout from geopolitical crises, a new poll found on Friday.

Following the recent declines, "consumer sentiment rose again somewhat in October and the downward trend has come to an end," market research company GfK said in a statement.

China and 21 other Asian nations signed on Friday to a new Beijing-backed international bank for Asia that Washington opposes as an unnecessary rival to established institutions such as the World Bank.

Representatives of the 22 nations signed a memorandum of understanding at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing to establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Spain's unemployment rate dropped to 23.7 percent in the third quarter from 24.5 percent in the previous three-month period thanks to a recovering economy and a bumper summer tourism season, official statistics showed Thursday.

The number of jobless people fell by 195,200 July through September, leaving the total number of unemployed at a rounded 5.4 million, Spain's statistics institute said. That's down from 5.6 million in the second quarter.

Business activity in the 18-nation eurozone strengthened slightly in October, a key survey showed Thursday, but overall the economy remained weak with new orders low and pressure on prices.

Markit Economics said its Composite Purchasing Managers Output Index (PMI) rose marginally to 52.2 points in October from a 10-month low of 52.0 points in September.

Large manufacturers are increasingly moving production back to the United States from China, according to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group released Thursday.

In the third annual survey of U.S.-based senior executives at manufacturing companies with annual sales of at least $1 billion, the number of respondents who said their companies were currently reshoring to the U.S. from China increased 20 percent from a year ago.

Ratings agency Moody's downgraded Brazil's state oil giant Petrobras' debt rating Tuesday, in a new blow for the government's economic reputation five days before presidential election.

The agency cut the highly-leveraged firm's rating one notch from Baa1 to Baa2, and said it expected to keep it on a negative outlook -- a warning of future further downgrades -- until 2016.