Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said Saturday he was "optimistic" regarding the outlook for the world oil market in 2014, which he expects to remain stable.

"I estimate that stability will continue in terms of supply, demand and prices," Naimi said at the opening of a meeting in Doha of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Foreign and Brazilian tourists are expected to spend $10.4 billion during next year's World Cup, more than the public funds invested for staging the event, the Brazilian tourism board said Friday.

"These are important resources which fuel economic sectors of all Brazilian regions, from aviation to the informal economy," said Flavio Dino, president of state tourism board Embratur, in a statement titled "Mega-events are worth it."

The International Monetary Fund released the next installment of its bailout of Cyprus on Friday, launching the latest stage in its support plan for the desperately struggling eurozone economy.

The IMF said 83.5 million euros ($114 million) was newly available to Cyprus, bringing to 250 million euros the amount it has disbursed from the three-year, billion-euro loan extended to Cyprus.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley Friday announced plans to sell part of its commodity business to Russian oil giant Rosneft for an undisclosed sum.

The transaction covers Morgan Stanley's "global oil merchanting" business, which engages in global storage, trading and transportation of oil and petroleum products.

Waratah Coal on Saturday welcomed the Australian government's approval of its $6.4 billion (U.S.$5.7 billion) Galilee coal project, as conservationists warned the decision threatened the environment.

The proposed coal mine, rail and infrastructure development in Queensland received approval for its environmental impact statement on Friday.

The South African government on Friday welcomed a decision by Standard and Poor's to leave the country's credit rating on hold, but complained that the retained negative outlook was unfair.

The Treasury Department said S&P's decision to keep the "BBB" rating with negative outlook "did not take adequate account of progress made" in addressing economic vulnerabilities.

A rise in China's interbank interest rates on Friday showed that markets remain uneasy despite a cash injection by China's central bank, said dealers.

The rates, which serve as the funding costs for pricing and investment, have been trending higher in recent weeks as the People's Bank of China (PBoC) had recently refrained from injecting further liquidity before Thursday's move.

The Standard and Poor's ratings agency on Friday downgraded the European Union's long-term credit rating one notch, from "AAA" to "AA+", citing weaker credit worthiness among the bloc.

"The downgrade... reflects our view of weaker creditworthiness among the 28 EU member states, including among net creditors to the EU's budget," the agency said.

The Cyprus parliament has approved the island's first post-bailout budget providing deep spending cuts in 2014 of about 10 percent to ensure international bailout targets are met.

The late Thursday majority vote -- 30 for, 20 against and four abstentions -- came after a two-day debate.

The value of the volatile virtual currency Bitcoin leapt in China on Thursday, after falling nearly 50 percent one day earlier due to new restrictions reportedly imposed by the central bank.

Late Thursday Bitcoins were trading at 3,430 yuan ($565) each on China's biggest trading platform BTC China, up more than 70 percent from an intra-day low of 2,011 yuan on Wednesday.