European stocks were set to rise on Thursday, tracking gains in Asia, where Japan's larger-than-expected stimulus plan fuelled hopes for the economy, while investors awaited the Bank of England's interest rate decision.

"Macro news, earnings news and financial shocks are going to be worse than expected and that's why I believe this is still a bear market rally," famous bear Nouriel Roubini said.

European Central Bank Executive Board member Juergen Stark was quoted on Tuesday as criticizing decisions made at the G20 summit to boost the IMF's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).

Struggling European Union countries in central and eastern Europe should switch to the euro even without full euro zone membership, according to a confidential report quoted by the Financial Times on Monday.

The US dollar will remain the world's reserve currency for a while and it is probable that the world economy will start growing next year, with China, Brazil and India among the first to bounce back, billionaire investor and currencies expert George Soros told CNBC.

The European Central Bank cut interest rates by a smaller-than-expected 25 basis points on Thursday, but left the door open for more cuts and promised to reveal any plans for other ways to boost the recession-bound economy next month.

Why should we pay attention to four-and-a-half hours of debate followed by highly choreographed photo ops and a communiqué that most of us could have cobbled together on the back of a swanky hotel envelope?

The International Monetary Fund sees the world economy contracting by between 0.5 and 1 percent in 2009, Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in an interview published on Wednesday. 

The Norwegian kroner is "the best currency in the world" and certainly preferable to the US dollar, UK pound and other currencies where governments are practicing quantitative easing, David Bloom, global head of foreign exchange at HSBC, told CNBC Wednesday.

Call it what you will: an act of rebellion; blind myopia; a cry for help … but I'm actually starting to believe in the global recovery story.

A blind fiscal spending spree might not be the right solution to the ongoing economic slump in Europe, Yves Mersch, European Central Bank council member for Luxemburg, told CNBC Tuesday.

The Federal Reserve has no option but to start buying Treasurys as the government's needs for financing are huge, but the government bond market is a disaster in the making, Marc Faber, editor and publisher of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, told CNBC.

We might have strayed a bit from the rulebook on a good dinner party this morning as we sat back and watched hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry of Eclectica lock horns with Liam Halligan, the chief economist at Prosperity Capital and maverick columnist for the UK’s Telegraph newspaper.

The stock market is still an unsafe place for investors as quantitative easing, by which central banks boost the supply of money attempting to kick-start economies, is unlikely to work, Hugh Hendry, Chief Investment Officer at Eclectica, told CNBC.

Central banks' efforts to introduce measures such as buying various assets and printing money as they bring their interest rates to zero will not work in countries with too high levels of debt, Hugh Hendry, Chief Investment Officer at Eclectica, told CNBC.