Some of the world's biggest phone giants will find out Thursday which two have won telecoms licences in Myanmar, an official said Thursday, ahead of an expected boom for the sector as the country embarks on a reform drive.

The tender was launched in the hope of quickly increasing mobile coverage across the country where less than 10 percent of the population having access to a telephone.

EU finance ministers began talks in Brussels on Wednesday aimed at agreeing rules on future bank rescues -- a sensitive issue in efforts to prevent another eurozone debt crisis.

Marathon talks between the finance ministers last week ended with no deal and the latest negotiations come on the eve of a summit of EU leaders where an agreement would be formalized.

Finance minister George Osborne will on Wednesday confirm plans to further slash Britain's state spending, with the government insistent on sticking to a path of austerity despite a fragile economic recovery.

Osborne, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, will outline details of cuts to spending totaling £11.5 billion ($17.7 billion, 13.6 billion euros) for the country's 2015-16 financial year, which follows Britain's next general election in two years' time.

Spain's job-destroying recession is set to ease in the second quarter of 2013 as activity improves, the Bank of Spain said Wednesday, adding its voice to an optimistic chorus emerging from the government.

The central bank saw light ahead for Spain, wallowing since 2011 in a double-dip recession, which has pushed the unemployment rate to towering record of more than 27 percent.

Plans by the U.S. Federal Reserve to wind down its monetary stimulus and slower growth prospects in emerging markets will lead to a reduction in the inflow of private capital to these countries, the Institute of International Finance said Wednesday.

"Investors have become increasingly concerned about the market impact of the Fed's exit from accommodative monetary conditions, particularly against the backdrop of slower growth in key emerging economies," IIF Executive Managing Director Hung Tran said in a statement.

South Korea has decided to split the assets of Woori Finance Holdings into three groups in its fourth bid to sell its majority stake in the nation's largest banking group, regulators said Wednesday.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said the sell off would begin with two regional banks, followed by the group's brokerage unit and related affiliates, and finally the flagship Woori Bank.

Scandinavian airline SAS says it plans to order 12 new planes from Airbus in a deal valued at $3.3 billion at list prices.

SAS said Tuesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding — short of a firm order — for eight A350 and four A330 planes as part of a renewal of its long-haul fleet.

The "feral hogs" of the financial markets will not sway the U.S. Federal Reserve from scaling back its bond-buying program when it deems the time to be right, a leading central banker told Tuesday's Financial Times.

Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve and a member of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, said that recent market volatility following central bank chief Ben Bernanke's suggestion that he may wind down the $85 billion-a-month bond purchases reminded him of Britain's 1992 currency crisis.

EU leaders meet this week knowing they have to deliver growth and jobs, especially for the young, as years of debt crisis austerity and soaring dole queues test faith in the European project.

The debt crisis may have eased, allowing governments some leeway on austerity in favor of growth, but the question is how far they can go without compromising hard won gains.

Britain's Vodafone PLC has launched a takeover bid for Germany's biggest cable operator, Kabel Deutschland, which values the German company at 7.7 billion euros ($10.2 billion).

Kabel Deutschland Holding AG, which has more than 8 million customers, said Monday that its management and supervisory boards "welcome this announcement."