The Russian economy could be set back to zero growth this year, the finance minister warned on Tuesday amid growing spending on Crimea and capital flight.

Finance minister Anton Siluanov said at a government meeting that Russia's economy faced "the most difficult conditions since the 2008 crisis," Russian news agencies reported.

RWE, Germany's second-biggest power supplier, said on Tuesday it will restart gas deliveries to Ukraine as Russia threatens to cut off the country's supplies.

"RWE -– via its trading and gas midstream arm RWE Supply & Trading –- is the first European supplier to commence gas deliveries to the Ukraine in 2014," the German group said in a statement.

The Italian government named four new directors, including three women, to state-controlled companies Monday and capped executive pay at such firms at 238,000 euros a year.

The shakeup affects some of the country's largest state-controlled companies: oil firm Eni, energy company Enel, industrial giant Finmeccanica and the Italian postal service.

The Australian government Tuesday gave the go-ahead to a second international airport for Sydney, ending decades of indecision with a move expected to boost the national economy.  

Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed that Badgerys Creek, in western Sydney, will be the site of the new airport with planning to start immediately and construction from 2016.

The United States on Monday signed a $1 billion loan guarantee for Ukraine in support of its economic recovery after weeks of political upheaval and the loss of Crimea to Russia.

It came as pro-Russian insurgents gained more ground in eastern Ukraine, occupying a police station and an administrative building, their latest seizures in a campaign that threatens to break up the ex-Soviet state.

Eurozone industrial output edged higher in February, official data showed Monday, in line with recent data showing a very modest economic recovery in the single currency bloc.

The activity of the industrial sector is closed watched in the eurozone where there is deep concern in some countries about the low competitiveness of industry, particularly on export markets.

The Russian stock markets and the ruble fell in early trading on Monday after clashes between pro-Russian forces and the Kiev authorities in eastern Ukraine.

Western powers blame Russia for stirring up the trouble.

Greece will issue more bonds after last week's successful five-year debt sale that ended a four-year drought, the head of the debt agency said on Sunday.

"The bond sale was just the first step," Stelios Papadopoulos, head of the public debt management agency (PDMA) told Kathimerini daily.

U.S. bank Citigroup has cut between 200 and 300 additional jobs, most in the global markets business, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Some of the employees were fired, while others left voluntarily. Among them was Steve Prince, the younger brother of former chief executive Charles Prince, according to the newspaper.

The winner of energy-rich Algeria's presidential election must tackle a major problem facing the country -- its dependence on hydrocarbon revenues, which are used by the government to defuse social tensions and which are in decline.

Sporadic protests over poor living conditions came to a head in early 2011, as the popular uprising in neighboring Tunisia toppled a decades old-dictatorship.