The EU's auditor on Thursday hailed progress in the bloc's wasteful spending, which fell to 4.2 billion euros in 2016, but warned that future spending commitments had hit an all-time high of nearly 240 billion euros.

The assessment comes as EU states wrangle over how to fill the budgetary hole left by Brexit, and as Britain disputes the bloc's claim about how much it owes towards future commitments.

Germans will be slightly less confident about future income and less keen on splashing out in October, a survey predicted Thursday, even as belief in the country's economic strength remains high.

The government of Emmanuel Macron unveils its first budget Wednesday as the young president seeks to kick-start the French economy with a business-friendly agenda.

Major gas producers in Australia agreed Wednesday to boost domestic supplies to help arrest a looming power crisis after the government threatened to slap them with export restrictions.

Lending by eurozone bank to households and companies grew faster in August than the previous month, figures from the European Central Bank showed Wednesday.

Overall credit to the private sector grew 2.7 percent year-on-year last month, adjusting for some purely financial transactions -- an increase of 0.1 percentage point over July's pace.

The United States announced Tuesday it was imposing preliminary anti-dumping duties of 220 percent on CSeries jets made by Canadian aerospace firm Bombardier following a complaint by American manufacturer Boeing.

Tokyo stocks closed ended lower on Tuesday as exporters were hit by a rush into the safe-haven yen with tensions between the United States and North Korea flaring up again.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed that every home in India will have electricity by December 2018 as he moves to shore up voter support amid doubts over his handling of the economy.

French President Emmanuel Macron's government is set to unveil its first annual budget on Wednesday, balancing tricky priorities as it seeks to cut taxes while also slashing the deficit.

British jeweler Graff said Tuesday it has purchased the world's largest uncut diamond -- roughly the size of a tennis ball -- for $53 million (44.5 million euros).