Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday the final pieces were in place for the 2015 launch of an economic union with Belarus and Kazakhstan that Moscow hopes can also be joined by Ukraine.

Putin promised following talks with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko that the so-called Eurasian Economic Union would turn into a new source of growth for all involved.

Indonesia said Tuesday it will allow increased overseas investment in a range of sectors, as it seeks to boost slowing growth and lure back foreigners who fled during recent market turmoil.

Foreign investors in Southeast Asia's top economy will be given increased access in areas including power plants, ports and airports, and the pharmaceuticals industry.

The Dutch economy grew by an estimated 0.2 percent in the third quarter, the CBS statistics office said Tuesday, confirming a slow emergence from recession.

The figure was slightly higher than the forecast of 0.1 percent issued by the central statistics office last month.

France's economy contracted 0.1 percent in the third quarter of 2013, the statistics body INSEE confirmed Tuesday, but it is expected to post 0.4-percent growth for the fourth quarter.

GDP growth in the second quarter was slightly higher than forecast, at 0.6 percent instead of 0.5 percent.

Japan approved its biggest ever budget Tuesday, as an improving economy and a sales tax hike made room for more defense spending and the first step towards achieving a balanced budget.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet rubber-stamped a plan that will see the government spend 95.88 trillion yen ($922 billion) in the year from April 2014, up from 92.61 trillion yen the previous year.

Saudi Arabia announced on Monday a record budget of $228 billion for 2014, slightly up from $218.7 billion budgeted for this year, Al-Ekhbariyah state news channel reported.

The world's largest oil exporter also expected to conclude this year with a budget surplus of 206 billion riyals ($54.9 billion, 40 billion euros), after budgeting for a surplus of around $613 million.

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta admitted Monday his country was suffering from "social fatigue" but said his government had brought "a stability dividend" worth billions of euros due to lower borrowing costs.

"We have to respond to social fatigue," he said at an end-of-year press conference, as the country tries to recover from its longest recession since World War II.

Barring a late price surge, gold's value will suffer its first annual drop since the start of the millennium, while the precious metal risks further losses in 2014.

Gold stood at $1,205 an ounce Friday on the London Bullion Market, down almost 27 percent in 2013 on weaker demand and easing inflation -- snapping twelve years of uninterrupted annual price growth.

Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group has won a lawsuit against U.S. jewelry group Tiffany & Co over a failed joint venture to jointly design and market luxury watches.

Tiffany was required to pay Swatch 402 million Swiss francs (327 million euros, $449 million) under the ruling by the Netherlands Arbitration Institute, Swatch said in a statement.

Libyan Oil Minister Abdelbari al-Arusi on Saturday issued a renewed threat of force to lift a months-long blockade of oil terminals by striking autonomists.

"The government is making every effort to hold talks with those blockading the terminals," he told journalists on the sidelines of a conference in Doha of the Organisation of Arab Oil Exporting Countries.