Ratings agency Standard and Poor's on Tuesday downgraded the sovereign rating of crisis-hit Italy by one notch to 'BBB' on worries over the country's ability to resist effects of a dilapidating recession.

"The rating action reflects our view of a further worsening of Italy's economic prospects coming on top of a decade of real growth averaging minus 0.04 percent," it said.

U.S. regulators Tuesday unveiled tough new capital requirements for the nation's eight largest banks in the newest move to strengthen the financial system in the wake of the 2008 crisis.

The proposed capital minimums are intended to reduce risk throughout the system and address the so-called "too big to fail" problem, in which the government could be forced into a rescue when giant institutions founder.

Global agency Fitch on Tuesday upgraded Latvia's credit rating by a notch to BBB+, just hours after the Baltic nation was green-lighted to become the eurozone's 18th member.

"The upgrade follows the announcement of ECOFIN's decision today to invite Latvia to join the eurozone on 1 January 2014," Fitch said in a statement, adding that the country's outlook was stable.

Greece has raised 1.6 billion euros ($2.1 billion) through the auction of treasury bills, Athens said on Tuesday.

The sale raised an equal amount as the previous auction last month and, crucially, at the same borrowing rate of 4.2 percent, the country's public debt management agency said.

The tiny Baltic state of Latvia received the green light from its European partners Tuesday to become the 18th member of the eurozone from next year.

In what Latvia's prime minister Valdis Dombrovskis described as a "good day for Latvia and also for Europe," the ECOFIN council -- made up of the economy and finance ministers of the EU's 28 member states -- gave formal approval to the country's euro membership.

Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim has acquired a 10.8 percent stake in Shazam, the British company behind a music recognition smartphone application that instantly identifies songs and artists.

Slim's America Movil phone company announced the capital stock deal in a statement Monday, saying that the two firms "entered into a strategic alliance for business development in the Americas."

The International Monetary Fund on Monday hailed the progress achieved by the eurozone over the past year in tackling its crisis, but said it needs to do more to sustainably boost growth and employment.

"Policy actions over the past year have addressed important tail risks and stabilized financial markets," the IMF wrote in a new report.

Oil prices eased on profit-taking Tuesday following last week's surge, but losses were limited by concerns that escalating violence in Egypt will disrupt supplies from the Middle East, analysts said.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in August, fell six cents to $103.08 a barrel in afternoon trade and Brent North Sea crude for August was down 20 cents at $107.23.

The Turkish central bank ramped up its monetary conditions on Monday to shore up the local currency, the lira after it hit a record low value against the dollar.

The bank announced that it was applying immediately a "strong" tightening of monetary conditions.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Sunday signalled Sunday that her organisation would be lowering slightly its global economic growth forecasts, which are set to released in the next few days.

Lagarde noted that the International Monetary Fund, along with the World Bank, back in April said that the global economic recovery was advancing at mainly three different speeds, from an average 5.5 percent in emerging economies to 2.0 percent in advanced countries like the United States and Australia, to the essentially deadlocked economies of the eurozone.