Australia is cracking down on foreigners who unlawfully own residential properties, investigating hundreds of cases ahead of the introduction of tougher penalties, Treasurer Joe Hockey said Saturday.

The government announced in May it would increase penalties for illegal purchases to rigorously enforce rules under which foreigners are only allowed to buy new dwellings, and not existing residential property.

China's foreign trade performance worsened in July with both exports and imports falling on an annual basis, customs said on Saturday, spelling more worry for the world's second largest economy.

Exports plunged 8.3 percent year-on-year to $195.10 billion while imports dropped 8.1 percent to $152.07 billion, it said in a statement on its website.

Police in Greece have found no sign of electronic hacking into the tax files of millions of Greeks, which ex-finance minister Yanis Varoufakis claimed to have ordered as part of an emergency plan to deal with an exit from the euro, state agency ANA reported Saturday.

A police source told the agency that specialist officers had analyzed four finance ministry hard disks, and found no signs of tampering with the taxpayer registry database.

Rating firm Fitch raised its outlook on Ireland to 'positive' from 'stable', citing the eurozone country's strengthening economy after exiting an international bailout in 2013.

Fitch highlighted that tax revenues increased by 11.7 percent in the first half of 2015 compared with the same period a year ago, notably on strong corporate tax receipts. Revenues from VAT and personal income tax grew 8.0 percent and 6.0 percent, respectively.

The EU on Friday formally extended until next year a multi-million-euro aid package to help European fruit and vegetable growers hit by Russian sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation European Union, said it "extended until the end of June 2016 the safety net measures for the European fruit and vegetables sector." 

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC plunged to its lowest closing share price in more than a decade Friday, a day after it posted its biggest ever quarterly loss.

Stocks dropped by the daily limit of 10 percent to Tw$63 ($1.99) at closing in the wake of disastrous results which prompted the firm to say it would take some models off the market as it seeks to cut costs.  

Oil prices looked set to continue a multi-week decline in Asian trade on Friday on concerns over a global oversupply of crude and mixed prospects for energy demand.

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for September delivery was at $44.81, down from $47.12 a week ago, and on course for its eighth consecutive week of declines.

Australia's central bank Friday tempered expectations of an improvement in economic growth as the nation grapples with the shift away from mining-led investment, but said there were signs of a strengthening jobs market.

The Reserve Bank of Australia said "in the face of significant structural change, the economy has continued to grow at a moderate pace over the past year", but added there were signs of improving conditions including in the labour market and in the non-mining sector.

The Bank of Japan held fire on a fresh round of stimulus Friday, despite weak inflation that has defied its more than two-year-old monetary easing program.

In a widely expected decision, the central bank said it would stand pat on a record 80 trillion yen ($640 billion) annual asset-buying scheme that is aimed at boosting prices and kickstarting growth.

Russian officials on Thursday steamrollered tonnes of cheese as they began a  controversial drive to destroy Western food smuggled into the crisis-hit country despite a public outcry. 

President Vladimir Putin last week signed a decree ordering the trashing of all food -- from gourmet cheeses to fruit and vegetables -- that breaches a year-old embargo on Western imports imposed in retaliation to sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.