EU finance ministers can afford a more relaxed approach at meetings this weekend in Cyprus as the bloc puts in place the key elements needed to ease the crippling three-year eurozone debt crisis.

The two-day informal talks in Cyprus follow a major breakthrough Wednesday when Germany's top court cleared the way for German ratification of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and a fiscal pact tightening up the rules.

Rising energy prices pushed inflation in Germany, Europe's top economy, above the threshold set by the European Central Bank in August, official data showed on Wednesday.

Inflation stood at 2.1 percent year-on-year last month, national statistics office Destatis said in a statement, slightly revising higher its initial estimate made on August 29.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics said Wednesday it had started building a new $7 billion chip plant in the Chinese city of Xian -- its biggest-ever investment in the country.

The plant, scheduled to come on line in 2014, will produce the advanced 10-nanometre-class NAND flash memory chips used for devices such as smartphones and computers, the firm said in a statement on ground-breaking day.

A barrage of strikes hit Greece on Wednesday as the government struggled to finalize a new austerity package with international creditors and sought to jumpstart a privatization drive delayed for months.

Teachers, hospital doctors and municipal staff kicked off separate protests against planned cutbacks and job losses as civil servants and security staff prepared to demonstrate later in the day.

Bailed out Portugal won a precious reprieve from its creditors Tuesday, a day before a crucial court decision in Germany that could bring a painful end to a summertime lull in the eurozone debt crisis.

The EU and IMF agreed to relax Portugal's deficit targets for 2012 and 2013, rewarding the Portuguese for pushing through reforms and drawing a marked contrast with the little patience shown by creditors to Greece.

Moody's warned Tuesday it could strip the United States of its coveted triple-A credit rating if Congress fails to produce a budget that will bring down the federal debt burden.

"Budget negotiations during the 2013 Congressional legislative session will likely determine the direction of the U.S. government's Aaa rating and negative outlook," the ratings firm said in a statement

Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen Monday backed Spain in its "unfair" financial crisis and said he would not pressure it to seek a full sovereign bailout.

Katainen, addressing a Madrid economic forum before meeting with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, said he did not like to speculate about a Spanish bailout.

Qatar Holding, a major shareholder of mining group Xstrata, said Tuesday it has made no decision yet on whether to accept Glencore International's latest offer to salvage a multibillion-dollar merger bid for the Anglo-Swiss company.

The brief comments suggest Qatar Holding is at least considering Glencore's latest offer. The government-run investment firm is Xstrata's second-largest shareholder. It had pushed for better terms for Xstrata, and its opposition to the original bid threatened to scuttle the entire deal.

Moody's on Tuesday held its negative outlook for the British banking sector, citing the weak economy, higher regulatory costs and exposure to the Eurozone debt crisis.

"The outlook for the UK banking system remains negative," Moody's Investors Service said in a new report on the sector.

The U.S. Treasury said Monday that the sale of $18 billion worth of stock in AIG will mean that the taxpayer funds used to bail out the insurance giant in 2008 have been "fully recovered."

The Treasury also provided additional details about the sale, first announced Sunday, specifying that it would sell some 553 million shares for $32.50 each, with AIG set to buy back some 153 million for $5 billion.