Spain's recovering economy could grow as much as 2.5 percent this year if oil prices and the euro stay low, the economy minister said in an interview published Monday.

The government says its tough austerity measures have started to strengthen the economy, which officially emerged from recession in 2013 and grew an estimated 1.4 percent in 2014.

German business confidence rose to its highest level in six months in January, as the outlook for Europe's biggest economy continues to brighten, the Ifo economic institute said Monday.

The Ifo institute's closely watched business climate index rose to 106.7 this month from 105.5 points in December, the think tank said in a statement. 

Pakistan's ongoing fuel shortage that has led to worsening power blackouts is weighing on its credit worthiness and hindering its ability to meet key reform targets laid out by the IMF, ratings agency Moody's warned Monday.

The country is currently in the grip of one of its worst power crises in years due to a shortfall in imported oil, with the situation exacerbated Sunday by an attack on a key powerline in restive Baluchistan province.

The euro sank to an 11-year low Monday but Asian equities largely recovered from early losses after an anti-austerity party won Greece's election, throwing its international bailout into doubt and raising fears it could leave the eurozone.

Oil prices resumed their downward trend after rallying on Friday in response to the death of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, which fuelled uncertainty in the crude market.

The International Monetary Fund is far from being done with Ukraine, its latest mega-bailout client.

A new aid plan for Kiev -- larger and longer -- is under discussion and raises the risk for the global crisis lender as Ukraine sinks deeper into war against pro-Moscow separatists.

The euro fell again against the dollar Friday, hitting a new 11-year low a day after the European Central Bank unveiled a vast bond-buying program to revive the eurozone.

The currency market also nervously awaited the outcome of Greece's general elections Sunday, with polls showing the leftist anti-austerity Syriza party would win, posing a new challenge to the bailout program from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

MasterCard in March will begin processing transactions made on U.S.-issued cards in Cuba, becoming the first major credit card company to do so since Cuba and the United States started to normalize relations.

MasterCard said in a statement Friday that the move, effective March 1, follows renewed guidance from the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Cloud storage startup Box soared in its Wall Street debut Friday after a public share offering, pushing its market value to $2.7 billion.

Trading under the symbol "BOX," the shares jumped 66 percent to close at $23.23 on the New York Stock Exchange from the offering price of $14 announced Thursday.

The leader of Greece's left-wing Syriza party vowed Friday to restore "dignity" to the hugely-indebted country if they win Sunday's general election as expected.

Alexis Tsipras, 40, has campaigned on a pledge to renegotiate Greece's 318 billion euro ($357 billion) debt mountain and said he was steeling himself for a "major confrontation" with the country's international creditors.

China's use of its own yuan currency for cross-border transactions has increased "notably" to 9.95 trillion yuan ($1.63 trillion) last year, the central bank said Friday, without giving a comparative figure.

China is seeking to make the yuan -- also known as the renminbi (RMB) -- used more internationally in line with its standing as the world's second-largest economy. Some analysts predict the unit will one day rival the U.S. dollar.