Russia's economy minister said on Monday that dramatically slowing growth indicated the country had entered a period of possibly prolonged stagnation but that an outright recession was avoidable.

Alexei Ulyukayev's comments came after the first initial estimate on Friday showed that second-quarter growth slowed to 1.2 percent in annual terms compared with 1.6 percent over the first three months of 2013.

Germany's central bank expects Greece to receive another bail-out loan later this year or by early 2014, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported Sunday, citing an internal Bundesbank document.

The bank's experts however rated the risks of the international loan program as "exceptionally high" and the Greek government's performance as "barely satisfactory", the magazine said.

South Korea ordered government offices to turn off their air-conditioning as two power plants stopped operations Monday, a day after a minister warned of an imminent national energy crisis.

The Dangjin III plant, with a capacity of 500,000 kilowatts, was taken offline by mechanical issues and will likely remain shut for a week, a spokesman for the state power distributor Korea Power Exchange (KPE) said.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said on Sunday that there has been "no change" in the country's 2013 growth forecast, after it appeared the figure had been revised downward.

"There was no change in the growth forecast as I have read it," the minister told journalists in Paris.

Japan's economic growth slowed in the April-June quarter, official data showed Monday, raising questions about whether Tokyo's bid to stoke growth was taking hold and if it would launch a series of tax hikes.

The fresh figures paint a mixed picture of firming consumer consumption but little evidence that firms are confident enough to start big spending on investment.

The dollar Friday advanced against some major currencies, recovering somewhat from recent declines ahead of a busier week of U.S. economic data.

Near 2200 GMT, the euro traded at $1.3338 Friday, down from $1.3380 Thursday.

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group has said it plans to sell some of its Indian assets, including its credit card and mortgage business, to a domestic bank as it disposes of more of its once sprawling empire.

RBS, now more than 80 percent owned by the British government following the 2008 global financial crisis, plans to sell its business banking, credit card business and mortgage loan portfolio to India's Ratnakar Bank, the two banks said.

An auction to privatize airports in Rio and Belo Horizonte, two host cities for the 2014 World Cup, will be held on October 31, Brazilian authorities said Friday.

Presidential chief of staff Gleisi Hoffmann announced the date for the auction to sell concessions to run

Russia's growth slowed sharply in the second quarter despite President Vladimir Putin's efforts to reverse the trend before he hosts the G20 summit next month, initial estimates showed on Friday.

The first growth reading from the Federal State Statistics Service dealt a heavy blow to the government by revealing that the economy had expanded in the second quarter of this year from the same period in 2012 at a rate of just 1.2 percent.

Iran has beefed up its oil tanker fleet with vessels from China and is selling more crude to Beijing as Tehran struggles under international sanctions, the IEA said in a report Friday.

Iran's once lucrative oil sector has been crippled by sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union over Tehran's controversial nuclear drive. Despite Iranian denials, the West is convinced Tehran is pursuing a nuclear bomb.