India's central bank warned Friday economic growth could fall further after the country's worst quarterly figures in nine years, as business leaders and newspapers blasted the government over the slump.

Data for the January-March quarter released on Thursday showed growth in gross domestic product of just 5.3 percent, high by the standards of developed countries but a severe disappointment in once-booming India.

Brent oil prices sank under $100 a barrel on Friday for the first time in eight months, hit by weak Chinese and U.S. data and Eurozone debt tensions centered on Spain.

At about 0910 GMT, Brent North Sea crude for July delivery tumbled $2.27 to strike $99.60 a barrel, which was the lowest level since October 4, 2011.

China and Japan started direct currency trading on Friday as Beijing marked another stage on its journey to foster the yuan's use internationally in line with its growing economic clout.

Market participants can now swap Japanese yen for Chinese yuan without having to use the U.S. dollar as an intermediary currency, making foreign trade settlement more convenient and cutting transaction costs.

Headline unemployment in Germany declined further in May, shrugging off the eurozone debt crisis, although there are signs the downward trend is slowing, official data showed on Thursday.

The German jobless rate, which measures the proportion of people registered as unemployed against the working population as a whole, fell to 6.7 percent in May from 7.0 percent in April.

Moody's downgraded the credit rating of nine Danish banks Wednesday, citing the impact of the rolling Eurozone crisis on bank loan quality and on their fund-raising ability.

The nine, along with the Finnish subsidiary of one of the banks, saw their ratings cut one to three notches, with one of them, DLR Kredit, pushed three steps down into the junk-bond realm at Ba1.

The euro plumbed two-year lows in Asia on Thursday as nervous traders ditched the single currency for safer units, including the yen and dollar, amid worries over Spain's faltering bank sector.

The euro changed hands at $1.2363 in Tokyo morning trade, against $1.2366 in New York late Wednesday, while it bought 97.54 yen, down from 97.76 yen.

Iraq will hold the second and final day of an auction for a dozen oil and gas exploration blocks on Thursday, after hopes for the sale were dampened when just one deal was made on the first day.

The bid round, the fourth such auction to be organized by Iraq since mid-2009, comes amid progress in ramping up oil exports, which account for the vast majority of government income, and as Baghdad eyes higher gas production to increase woefully inadequate power supplies.

South Korea expects to receive an exemption from new U.S. sanctions against Iran after significantly cutting its imports of Iranian crude oil, a senior foreign ministry official said Wednesday.

As part of efforts to pressurise Tehran over its nuclear programme, a U.S. law taking effect next month will impose sanctions on nations buying Iranian oil unless they can show such reductions.

Japan cut oil imports from Iran by 65 percent in April while boosting shipments from Saudi Arabia, official data showed Wednesday, amid Western efforts to squeeze Tehran over its atomic programme.

Resource-poor Japan, which relies heavily on Middle East oil, came under pressure earlier this year to curb imports from Iran, with Washington seeking to push Tehran into a corner over what it says is a nuclear weapons programme.

Three Spanish savings banks, Ibercaja, Liberbank, and Caja3, said Tuesday their boards have approved a merger that would create the country's seventh largest bank by assets.

The new bank is estimated to have assets of around 120 billion euros ($149.6 billion).