European finance ministers focus Tuesday on how to boost the slumping economy and the bloc's hotly contested budget after their eurozone peers reported progress on solving Greece's bailout problems.

The gathering of all 27 EU ministers comes in the run-up to what is likely to be a fractious November 22-23 European summit on the 2014-20 budget, with many insisting there can be no increase in EU spending when austerity is the order of the day.

The yen rose against the euro and dollar as investors sought out its safety and dealing a blow to Japan's exporters, while the European unit also hit a two-month low against the greenback.

Chinese shares were down in afternoon trade, as property shares tumbled on concerns over government intentions to maintain policies to control housing prices, dealers said.

The IMF's number-two official, David Lipton, warned Monday that policymakers should temper austerity measures aimed at reducing debt if they are damaging economic growth.

Lipton, the IMF first deputy managing director, said at a London conference that despite progress since the 2008-2009 global financial meltdown, "this crisis is proving very hard to end."

Spain's top daily newspaper El Pais began delivering redundancy notices on Monday to nearly one-third of its staff including some of the paper's best-known writers.

Last month El Pais, part of heavily indebted Spanish media group Prisa, announced there would be 129 layoffs and 20 early retirements, bringing the total number of job cuts to 149 out of about 460 staff.

Spain's banks announced Monday they will freeze mortgage-related evictions for two years in cases of extreme need as a public outcry mounted over suicides by desperate homeowners.

The lenders reacted after two suicides in 15 days by indebted homeowners facing expulsion in Spain, where both banks and borrowers were hammered by a 2008 property crash.

The United States is to become the world's top oil producer around 2020, the International Energy Agency said on Monday, overtaking Saudi Arabia until the middle of that decade.

"The recent rebound in U.S. oil and gas production ... is spurring economic activity ... and steadily changing the role of North America in global energy trade," the agency said in its annual outlook on the energy markets of tomorrow.

Oil prices drifted Monday as traders worried about the threat to the U.S. Economy if lawmakers and President Barack Obama don't reach an agreement to avoid automatic tax hikes and spending cuts.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was down 23 cents to $85.84 a barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 98 cents to finish at $86.07 per barrel on the Nymex on Friday.

Greece's unrelenting debt drama tops the agenda Monday when Eurozone finance ministers discuss whether Athens has met conditions set by its international creditors to provide bailout funds so it can stay afloat.

The talks come hours after the Greek parliament, amid noisy protests, agreed a tough cost-cutting 2013 budget, the latest hurdle cleared by Athens to guarantee the release of the foreign aid needed to stave off insolvency.

Japan's economy shrank in the latest quarter, data showed Monday, raising fears it could slip into recession due to financial turmoil in Europe, a strong yen and a painful diplomatic row with China.

The world's third-largest economy contracted 0.9 percent between July and September from the previous three months, equivalent to an annualized 3.5 percent drop which Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda described as "severe".

More than 170 countries Monday adopted what World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Margaret Chan called a "game-changing" global pact to combat the illegal tobacco trade.

The treaty envisages an international tracking system which aims to halt the smuggling and counterfeiting of tobacco products -- a trade which accounts for 11 percent of the total tobacco market and costs governments an estimated $40 billion in lost tax revenue.