Australia risks a debt crisis similar to Europe unless efforts are made to bring the budget deficit under control, the head of the first national audit of government spending in 18 years said Thursday.

Tony Shepherd, chair of the National Commission of Audit, recommended gradual cuts worth up to Aus$60-70 billion (U.S.$55.8-65.1 billion) per year within the decade to improve efficiency and productivity across all areas of spending.

The International Monetary Fund approved a $17 billion aid deal for Ukraine on Wednesday, even as Kiev fought to prevent pro-Moscow separatists from grabbing another chunk of the country.

Greenlighting a rescue program for an interim government which took power after an uprising two months ago, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said it was crucial to strengthen Kiev's economy.

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.