An increase in spending by consumers and households offset sagging exports and falling investment in Germany in the first quarter, allowing Europe's biggest economy to narrowly avoid recession, official data showed Friday.

The federal statistics office Destatis calculated in final data that Germany's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.1 percent in the period from January to March following a contraction of 0.7 percent in the preceding quarter.

The New York legal case over Argentina's debt poses a deep challenge to all future sovereign debt restructurings, the International Monetary Fund said in a report Thursday.

A U.S. judge's decision ordering Argentina to completely repay bondholders who refused to take part in a restructuring of its debt could have "pervasive implications" in other such cases, giving holdout creditors too much power in negotiations, the IMF said.

Celebrating its successful six month return to Lebanon, British Airways held a ceremony hosted by the British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher, a press release said on Thursday.

The event was attended by Minster of Tourism Fadi Abboud, Area Commercial Manager for the Middle East and Central Asia - Paolo De Renzis, the British Ambassador, in addition to airways executives; members of the media; and British Airways’ partners and customers.

French prosecutors were grilling IMF chief Christine Lagarde in a Paris court on Thursday as they seek to determine whether she should be charged over a state payout to disgraced tycoon Bernard Tapie during her time as finance minister.

Lagarde has downplayed the investigation, but the stakes of the probe are huge for both her and the International Monetary Fund. Since March, the IMF has not commented on the affair but the board has reiterated its "confidence" in Lagarde.

European leaders on Wednesday targeted a year-end deadline to undo banking secrecy, ultimately hoping to recoup a trillion euros in lost tax each year to help beat recession and unemployment.

A four-hour summit also touching on energy policy and Syria saw the European Union agree to introduce "before the year ends" a system for the automatic exchange of limited information between countries on personal savings accounts.

The Bank of Japan unleashed a torrent of liquidity Thursday to quell government bond yields amid concern that higher long-term interest rates could squeeze mortgage payers and crimp spending.

The central bank announced a two trillion yen ($19 billion) fund-supplying operation after the yield on the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond hit 1.0 percent, its highest level in over a year.

The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that Britain was a long way from a "sustainable recovery", and called for the government to boost infrastructure spending in order to accelerate economic growth and offset austerity.

"Recent data suggest some improvement in economic and financial conditions," the IMF said in a statement published at the conclusion of its latest mission to London, highlighting recent figures that indicated an uptick in economic activity.

As debt-laden Dubai's economic recovery continues, with grandiose projects making a comeback, the emirate faces some near-term maturity of debt racked up during pre-crisis years but the prospects are not gloomy, analysts say.

Dubai is likely to manage the forthcoming obligations, part of total debt amounting to 100 percent of its gross domestic product, according to Masood Ahmed, the Middle East director at the International Monetary Fund.

Leaders of recession-hit Europe take a fresh stab at fighting tax fraud and evasion worth a trillion euros a year at a summit Wednesday but seem unlikely to convince reluctant Austria and Luxembourg to sign on.

With euro-skepticism gaining ground as European Union unemployment queues lengthen and growth slumps, there were hopes of the one-day summit producing an EU-wide crusade against tax evasion and agreement to make the bloc energy-sufficient.

Christine Lagarde would not automatically be forced to resign her job as head of the International Monetary Fund if a French court decides to prosecute her in the Bernard Tapie case.

But such a ruling could weaken her as managing director of the Fund, after having led it through four difficult eurozone rescues in her 22 months in the job.