Shrugging off higher interest rates, America's consumers spent enough to help drive the economy to a brisk 5.2% annual pace from July through September, the government reported Wednesday in an upgrade from its previous estimate.

The government had previously estimated that the economy grew at a 4.9% annual rate last quarter.

Lebanon’s Central Bank is inclined to abolish the so-called lollar, a term coined by Lebanese economist Dan Azzi in 2019 to refer to a ‘Lebanese dollar’, or a dollar that became trapped in Lebanon’s banking system in the wake of the 2019 crisis, media reports said.

The global economy, which has proved surprisingly resilient this year, is expected to falter next year under the strain of wars, still-elevated inflation and continued high interest rates.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimated Wednesday that international growth would slow to 2.7% in 2024 from an expected 2.9% pace this year. That would amount to the slowest calendar-year growth since the pandemic year of 2020.

The Emirati president-designate for the upcoming United Nations COP28 climate talks forcefully denied Wednesday a report alleging his nation planned to use the summit to strike oil and gas deals, a day before the summit was due to begin.

Sultan al-Jaber, who also leads the massive state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., called the allegations from a BBC report "an attempt to undermine the work of the COP28 presidency" before the talks begin Thursday. The report cited what it described as "leaked briefing documents" the broadcaster said showed the Emirates planned to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 nations.

Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh was chosen Tuesday to host the 2030 World Expo following its bid that focused on shaping a prosperous and sustainable future, beating out Rome and the South Korean port city of Busan for an event expected to draw millions of visitors.

Members of the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions chose Riyadh with a majority of 119 out of 165 votes during a closed-door meeting in the suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux. Busan got 29 votes and Rome 17. The result was greeted with cheers by the Saudi delegation.

In a high-profile showdown, Rome, Busan and Riyadh are the top contenders to become the host city of the 2030 World Expo as the organizing body prepares to hold a vote in the French capital on Tuesday.

With the stakes high, each city has escalated its campaign efforts, showcasing unique visions and ambitious promises to secure the rights to the globally prestigious event.

With its economy struggling, Germany now is wrestling to find a way out of a budget crisis after a court struck down billions in funding for clean energy projects and help for companies and consumers facing high utility bills because of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to lay out how he and his quarrelsome governing coalition aim to fix things in a speech to parliament Tuesday. The government must hastily find cuts in the almost-finished spending plan for next year, analysts say, which could further slow what is already the world's worst-performing major economy.

Major Asian and European stock markets mostly dropped Monday as investors awaited the release this week of key U.S. inflation data that could provide a guide for the Federal Reserve's plans for interest rates going into the new year.

Grain thunders into rail cars and trucks zip around a storage facility in central Ukraine, a place that growing numbers of companies turned to as they struggled to export their food to people facing hunger around the world.

Now, more of the grain is getting unloaded from overcrammed silos and heading to ports on the Black Sea, set to traverse a fledgling shipping corridor launched after Russia pulled out of a U.N.-brokered agreement this summer that allowed food to flow safely from Ukraine during the war.

The shelves at Moscow supermarkets are full of fruit and vegetables, cheese and meat. But many of the shoppers look at the selection with dismay as inflation makes their wallets feel empty.

Russia's Central Bank has raised its key lending rate four times this year to try to get inflation under control and stabilize the ruble's exchange rate as the economy weathers the effects of Russia's military operation in Ukraine and the Western sanctions imposed as a consequence.