The head of Japan's largest trade union confederation on Tuesday called for further wage rises beyond next year, arguing that this year's wage hikes were inadequate if they prove a one-off.

Global export restrictions on critical materials have grown more than five-fold over the last decade, the OECD said on Tuesday, potentially impeding governments' efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Britain now looks set for a shallower economic hit this year than previously thought but remains on course to suffer the sharpest contraction among the world's big economies, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

China's consumer inflation hit an 18-month low and factory-gate price declines sped up in March as demand stayed persistently weak, shoring up the case for policymakers to take more steps to support the uneven economic recovery.

China is expected to drop its demand for multilateral development banks to share losses alongside other creditors in sovereign debt restructurings for poor countries, breaking a major roadblock to debt relief, a source familiar with the plans said on Tuesday.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker on Tuesday said he feels the U.S. central bank may soon be done raising interest rates, a year into its most rapid monetary policy tightening since the 1980s.