WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said late Monday he will begin tapping into two government employee retirement funds to buy more time before the U.S. Treasury is faced with the prospect of defaulting on the national debt. In a letter to congressional leaders, Lew said that he would tap the civil service retirement and disability fund and a similar fund that covers retired postal workers. The law allows him to remove investments from these funds to clear room for more borrowing until Congress votes to raise the debt limit

Austerity or growth? Europe's struggling economies have faced the question without fully answering it in recent years, but the United States is on track to do both. Projections unveiled this week by the Congressional Budget Office indicate the US deficit will shrink more than 40 percent during fiscal 2013, returning to its lowest level in five years.

Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart on Friday accused the government of using the mining industry as an ATM, warning of an unhealthy reliance on the sector and unsustainable debt levels. In a speech to be delivered at the Australian Mines and Metals Association conference, the outspoken tycoon, chairman of Hancock Prospecting, cautioned that without reform Australia risked the debt problems faced by countries like Greece.

LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's government said on Sunday its EU and IMF lenders had concluded work on the latest bailout review, indicating there were no outstanding obstacles for Lisbon to receive the next 2 billion euro tranche of the rescue package. The review, which had been practically sealed in March, hit a snag early last month when the constitutional court threw out some of this year's austerity measures. But the government presented a plan to compensate for those, along with wider deficit reduction steps until 2015 worth 4.8 billion euros.