Failed Bitcoin exchange MtGox was placed in administration by a Japanese court on Wednesday, with an order for bankruptcy expected to be issued soon, its administrator and chief executive said.

"The Tokyo District Court decided today to dismiss the application for commencement of a civil rehabilitation and at the same time, an order for Provisional Administration was issued," a statement from CEO Mark Karpeles said.

Economic sanctions by Europe against Russia "would destroy Cyprus's economy," Nicosia's foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides said in a German newspaper interview Wednesday.

"There are very strong economic ties between Cyprus and Russia. If sanctions are really necessary, then every member state should decide for itself whether to take part," Kasoulides said.

Swiss bank Credit Suisse says net profit fell 34 percent in the first quarter as bond-market woes hurt earnings at its investment banking business.

Profit fell to 859 million Swiss francs ($979 million) from 1.303 billion francs in the same quarter a year ago. Group core revenues fell 8 percent to 6.469 billion francs ($7.375 billion).

New Zealand's inflation rate rose just 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter in January-March but the lower than expected figure is unlikely to stop the central bank raising interest rates again, analysts said Wednesday.

Statistics New Zealand said the rise, largely driven by an increase in tobacco tax and surging house prices, put the annual inflation rate at 1.5 percent, well within the central bank's 1.0-3.0 target.

The U.S. Treasury said Tuesday that China cannot be ruled a manipulator of its currency despite the yuan's sharp slide since January.

But the Treasury warned that the recent fall could "raise particularly serious concerns" if it represents a reversal in Beijing's commitment to a more free-floating yuan.

Africans are losing $1.8 billion (1.3 billion euros) a year due to high fees levied on funds sent from abroad by relatives, Britain's leading think tank on development said Wednesday.

The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) found that Africans face some of the highest charges in the world for international transfers, but global leader Western Union insisted that the fees were down to a range of local factors.

Imperial Tobacco on Tuesday announced the closure of factories in Britain and France with the loss of 900 jobs, citing declining sales in Europe, tougher anti-smoking measures and the growth of contraband sales.

The two factories concerned are at Carquefou, near Nantes in western France, where 327 people are employed, and  Nottingham in central England, which has 540 staff.

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.