Moody's took the first step toward stripping Germany of its coveted AAA credit rating on Monday, cutting the outlook for Europe's largest and most pivotal economy to "negative."

Delivering a stark warning that no one is immune from the Eurozone’s rolling crisis, the ratings agency lowered Germany's credit outlook from "stable" to "negative."

Russia and a top Italian construction firm on Monday signed a deal worth 1.0 billion euros to build infrastructure for developing tourism in the violence-plagued Northern Caucasus region.

The deal, signed on the sidelines of a visit to Russia by Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, foresees the Italian firm Rizzani de Eccher investing 1.0 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to develop hotels and commercial infrastructure.

French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen has reached a deal to provide Japan's Toyota with light commercial vehicles for sale in Europe, the two companies said in a statement Monday.

The deal comes with Peugeot under fire in France after having announced earlier this month plans to cut 8,000 jobs and to close its historic Aulnay plant near Paris because of falling European sales.

Australia's mining boom will slow more sharply than expected and could be over within two years due to easing demand from China and falling prices, a leading economic forecaster warned Monday.

Mining exports to industrializing Asian nations, chiefly China, helped Australia weather the global crisis without entering recession and prompted Canberra to vow a budget surplus for the 2012-13 fiscal year starting July 1.

Greece returns to the EU-IMF operating table this week for a top-to-bottom appraisal that will determine whether its struggling economy will earn another cash injection to stay alive beyond the summer.

Auditors from the EU, International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank -- the so-called troika of Greek creditors -- return to Athens on Tuesday seeking answers from the government on how to bring troubled structural reforms on track.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle ruled out any renegotiation of Greece's budget austerity program in an interview published Saturday.

"I see desires emerging in Greece to renegotiate and substantially question the country's obligations to carry out reforms. I have to say simply, that will not do. It is a Rubicon that we are not going to cross," Westerwelle told the daily Bild.

Retail bank Raiffeisen is Switzerland's latest institution to part with its U.S. clients because of increasing red tape and amid an ongoing tax row with the United States, media reports said Saturday.

"We will soon shed those American clients who are taxable in the United States," bank spokesman Franz Wuerth told ATS news agency confirming reports by several regional papers.

Brazil must boost productivity and achieve a better balance between investment and consumption, the International Monetary Fund said in a report released Friday.

"Further efforts are needed to achieve a rebalancing of domestic demand from consumption to foster saving and provide space for investment," the IMF said in its Article IV report.

An Estonian crackdown on petrol smuggling from Russia has dramatically cut down on traffic jams at the Baltic state's border crossings, its revenue service said Friday.

Until last month, Estonian and Latvian smugglers had driven to Russia several times per week to fill up their tanks with cheaper petrol, to then syphon it out of their tanks and sell it back on the EU side.

Fitch affirmed Italy's 'A-' ratings with a 'Negative' outlook Thursday, citing the struggling Eurozone country's efforts to stabilize its strained public finances and get the economy growing.

In January, Fitch, one of the top three ratings agencies, slashed the rating by two notches as it warned of serious near-term problems facing Italy, alongside Spain, Belgium, Slovenia and Cyprus.