Rating firm Fitch downgraded Greece's credit a notch Thursday, to CCC from B-, citing political uncertainty over the country's commitment to a crucial bailout and possible exit of the eurozone.

"The downgrade of Greece's sovereign ratings reflects the heightened risk that Greece may not be able to sustain its membership of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)," Fitch Ratings said in a statement.

Chinese companies have slammed the United States as "short-sighted" and warned of a trade war after it imposed hefty duties on solar cells it said were being sold at artificially low prices.

The U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday slapped levies of between 31 and 250 percent on the Chinese solar cell producers in retaliation for the so-called "dumping".

Spain fell into recession in the first quarter of 2012 with a decline of 0.3 percent in gross domestic product (GDP), the same rate of contraction recorded late last year, official data showed on Thursday.

Final figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE) confirmed preliminary data issued on April 30 and underscored the precarious state of the Eurozone’s fourth biggest economy as it battles 24.4 percent unemployment, a record high.

The number of people vacationing abroad this year is expected to top a billion for the first time, the head of the global tourism authority said.

The forecast is higher than expected and presents an opportunity for governments to create jobs in difficult economic times, added Taleb Rifai, secretary general of the World Tourism Organization.

A Japanese bank has halted transactions by the Iranian government after a U.S. court ordered a $2.6 billion asset freeze over the 1983 bombing of U.S. barracks in Beirut, a bank spokesman said Thursday.

"It is true that we have received the order from the U.S. court," to freeze $2.6 billion of assets, a spokesman for the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ told Agence France Presse, declining to give details on the value of Iranian holdings at the bank.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble stressed on Wednesday that it was not possible to re-negotiate an international aid plan for Greece.

"This is an aid program that was prepared down to the last detail, we cannot re-negotiate it," Schaeuble told Deutschlandfunk radio after Greek political leaders said they were unable to form a new government, suggesting that new elections would be held.

Moody's is set to 'significantly' downgrade 21 Spanish banks within a week, following a cut of credit ratings on Italian banks, the Spanish economic daily Expansion said on Wednesday.

"Sources in the Spanish financial sector are convinced that the agency will lower in a significant manner the ratings of numerous institutions," said the daily.

The euro tumbled in Asian trade Wednesday to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar in four months, amid rising concern over the eurozone fiscal woes as debt-hit Greece gets set for fresh elections.

The single currency hit $1.2688, its lowest against the greenback since January 16, while it also tumbled to 101.96 yen, down from 102.12 yen in New York on Tuesday and its lowest since mid-February.

The World Bank on Tuesday announced it was ready to provide Indonesia with a $2 billion loan, a backstop against a potential debt crisis in one of Asia's fastest growing economies.

The World Bank said the loan, requested by the Indonesian government, would be held as a contingency against "possible future shocks and volatility."

India said Tuesday it would cut purchases of Iranian oil by 11 percent following pressure from the United States to join a drive to isolate the Islamic republic over its disputed nuclear program.

Indian refiners expect to import 15.5 million metric tons of crude from Iran in the fiscal year that began April 1, the country's junior oil minister told parliament in a written reply, down from 17.44 million tons last ear.