IMF

The International Monetary Fund warned China that it remains concerned over the property bubble in the country. The prices in many cities remain high even though Beijing has introduced higher inflation rate.

Chinese government undertook some measures to cool the real estate sector by having reduced transaction volumes and property price increases, but still in some larger cities prices still look “bubbly,” said Nigel Chalk, IMF mission chief to China.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that prosecutors in the United States will drop the charges against ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn when he again appears in the court in two weeks, or earlier, because the credibility of the alleged victim is highly doubted.

The New York Post cited an unnamed top investigator in the case who assured the eventual dismissal of charges "a certainty."

"We all know this case is not sustainable," The New York Post quoted its source as saying.

The case against former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn is reportedly to fall apart as the evidences previously considered as firm and irrevocable are in fact dubious and worthless. This may open a way for Strauss-Kahn to participate in the presidential elections in France.

On May 14 Strauss-Kahn was arrested and charged with assaulting a hotel maid in New York. Now prosecutors had some doubts about the credibility of the maid as the whole case was built absolutely on her allegations.

The growth forecast for the euro zone has been upgraded to 20% by the International Monetary Fund, up from the previous rate of 1.6%.

"There are some things that are going right," IMF acting Managing Director John Lipsky told CNBC. "Growth in the core economies is relatively solid and strong right now, but there is still in the medium term a very pressing need to improve both the stability and resilience and especially growth potential of the euro area economy."

This week the shortlist of candidates for the position of a head of the International Monetary Fund has been made up. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and Mexican central bank chief Agustin Carstens have been shortlisted for the IMF’s to job while Bank of Israel's Stanley Fischer has been disqualified for his age.

The IMF board declined to support changing the IMF's rules to allow 67-year-old Fischer to run, two board official reported.

An official statement by the IMF board confirmed it would consider two candidates and made no mention of Fischer.

A severe cyberattack hit the servers of the International Monetary Fund. The fund has admitted to being a victim of hackers’ hijacking. After the report the World Bank decided to temporally cut all computer connections between the two institutions.

It was not revealed what the nature of the attack was. The IMF staff was told of the hack last week in an email. However, it is widely believed that the attack had occurred some time before Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of the sexual assault.

Mexican central bank chief Agustin Carstens , the only declared rival to French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde in her bid for candidacy to lead the International Monetary Fund, said a non-European head of the Fund would mean tougher measures against euro zone crisis. Meantime, all we know that it won’t ever happen.

"It would be appropriate to have a non-European because a pair of fresh eyes could see European problems with greater objectivity," Carstens told El Pais in a visit to Spain as part of a tour to campaign for the job.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of euro zone finance ministers, said Thursday that the International Monetary Fund may refuse the next portion of aid to Greece due next month.

The report impacted the markets where European stocks declined and secure bond futures surged up.

Juncker's spokesman later clarified that if European and IMF inspectors were convinced by new Greek austerity measures, there would be no problem with the June aid tranche.

Last week member countries of International Monetary Fund expressed their concern over rising inflation in emerging markets fearing that it could have adverse effect on rich countries too.

On Saturday the 187 IMF states recognized the alarm among developing countries about huge inflows of speculative cash that are stoking their growth but also their inflation rates.

The International Monetary Fund has strongly criticized the United States for its loose budget deficit policy that may result in another global economic crisis. The IMF said that the US lacks a “credible strategy” to stabilize its mounting public debt.

The US was the only advanced economy to be increasing its underlying budget deficit in 2011 at a time when its economy was growing fast enough to reduce borrowing, said the fund.

A top International Monetary Fund official warned this week that overheating is threatening to the emerging economies that powered the global recovery because of the too fast growth.

Emerging markets like China and Brazil made every effort to contain inflation and seize heavy flows of investments. IMF’s first deputy managing director, John Lipsky said that the fund is increasingly concerned about the excessive growth.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a head of the International Monetary Fund, made comments this week on the world currency reform saying that Chinese yuan should be given a greater role within the restructured monetary system.

Speaking at the IMF’s headquarters Strauss-Kahn noted that adding emerging market countries' currencies such as the yuan to a basket of currencies that the IMF administers would benefit the global system and create more stability.

European leaders are discussing the possibility to overhaul the euro zone’s 440 billion-euro ($599.1 billion) rescue fund in exchange for some stricter measures and closer surveillance on struggling states, according to a report from the Financial Times.

Citing people familiar with the talks the FT reported that senior leaders are considering "enhanced surveillance" of Spain and Portugal rather than assistance, which would give a European Union stamp of approval on proposed reforms.

Friday in Singapore, the precious metal slipped tending for its first weekly decline in more than a month as stock markets gained, but bargain hunting could cushion the fall, with sentiment in the financial markets still fragile.

Spot gold loist $3.17 an ounce to $1,245.10 an ounce by 3:37 GMT, after falling as low as $1,242.20 on Thursday, partly driven by technical selling from recent highs. Bullion, which struck record around $1,264 in June, is headed for a weekly drop of 0.2 percent, its first in six weeks.

Tuesday in Singapore, bullion spiked to near a 1-week high as a weak US dollar prompted buying from investors, while jewelers were also anticipated to snap up the metal ahead of the festive season.

Spot gold added $2.00 to $1,183.25 by 3:05 GMT, after rising to a 1-week high of around $1,190 on Monday, partly driven by physical buying in Asia. The precious metal was well below a lifetime high of $1,264.90 struck in June.