The EU commission on Wednesday presented its plan to reduce the dollar's overwhelming dominance of the global economy and to strengthen the role of the euro, particularly for energy transactions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday voiced support for Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro as he visited Moscow seeking financial assistance for the socialist country's collapsing economy.

Tensions between Ukraine and Russia off the coast of Crimea are affecting EU economies as European vessels are caught up in delays, the bloc's diplomatic chief warned Wednesday.

The former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, who was arrested in Japan on suspicion of underreporting his income, seems prepared to fight out his case and has asked for thriller books, according to the Brazilian consul general.

Joao de Mendonca Lima Neto, one of the few visitors Ghosn has been allowed to see under Japan's stringent rules, said Ghosn was healthy and holding up well.

China vowed Wednesday to move swiftly to strike a trade consensus with the United States, even as mixed signals on the detente from self-described "Tariff Man" Donald Trump's administration upset global markets.

EU finance ministers agreed reforms to better fight against a financial crisis on Tuesday that fell short of the original ambitions to relaunch Europe by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Inflation in Turkey dropped for the first time to nearly 22 percent last month after surging to a 15-year high in October, official statistics showed on Monday. 

Oil prices soared on Monday after Russia and Saudi Arabia renewed a pact to cap output, while the US agreed to halt raising tariffs on Chinese imports, stalling a trade row that many feared could hit demand for the commodity.

The tiny, energy-rich Arab nation of Qatar announced on Monday it would withdraw from OPEC, mixing its aspirations to increase production outside of the cartel's constraints with the politics of slighting the Saudi-dominated group amid the kingdom's boycott of Doha.

The surprise announcement from Qatar's minister of state for energy affairs, Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, again throws into question the role of the cartel after needing non-members to push through a production cut in 2016 after prices crashed below $30 a barrel.

Germany and France will on Monday seek to revive the long-delayed EU financial transaction tax by proposing that member states be allowed to use the revenues to reduce their EU budget contributions, a German newspaper reported.