Reuters

By Leigh Thomas

PARIS (Reuters) - The global economy is growing faster than expected only a few months ago thanks to resilient U.S. activity while inflation is converging more quickly than expected with central banks' targets, the OECD said on Thursday, upgrading its outlook.

The global economy would maintain the 3.1% growth rate seen last year and pick up marginally to 3.2% next year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and... (continue reading...)

By Alexander Marrow

LONDON (Reuters) - Russia's ability to mete out like-for-like retaliation if Western leaders seize its frozen assets has been eroded by dwindling foreign investment, but officials and economists say there are still ways it can strike back.

The United States wants to seize immobilised Russian reserves - around $300 billion globally - and hand them to Ukraine, while EU leaders favour ringfencing profits from the assets,... (continue reading...)

By Joan Faus

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Crunch elections in Catalonia next week will test the wisdom of the latest political gambles by Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who aims to use the vote to buoy his power nationally but risks inadvertently awakening a dormant Catalan separatism.

Sanchez aims to wrest control of the wealthy region in the May 12 vote from separatists who wield outsized influence over Spanish politics. But if his... (continue reading...)

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court cancelled the seizure of part of JPMorgan Chase's funds in Russia in a dispute with Russian state-owned bank VTB, according to a court document.

JPMorgan said in a filing on Wednesday that its assets in Russia may be seized after lawsuits in Russian and U.S. courts.

The bank faces several legal challenges over its Russian dealings after the U.S. and European nations imposed economic sanctions on Russia... (continue reading...)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese household spending probably accelerated its pace of declines in March, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday, underscoring the difficulties facing policymakers keen to engineer self-sustaining economic growth and normalise monetary policy.

March household spending could fall 2.4% from the same month a year earlier, compared with the prior month's 0.5% decline, according to the poll of 16 economists.

That would mark... (continue reading...)