Amid all the gloom and doom over debt-stricken Portugal there is a ray of light -- shoemaking, one of the oldest and most traditional industries, had a record year in 2011 on strong exports.

The shoemaker companies, which sell nearly all their production overseas, registered 17 percent growth last year, according to industry group APICCAPS.

Output by Italian oil giant ENI, the top producer of Libyan crude, has nearly reached its levels prior to the war last year that ousted Moammar Gadhafi, its chief Paolo Scaroni said Saturday.

"We are almost where we were. We are producing 270,000 barrels per day now against 280,000 before the revolution," Scaroni told reporters in Tripoli where he arrived as part of a delegation of visiting Italian premier Mario Monti.

The G20 group of powerful economies agrees on the need to boost IMF resources but has not yet discussed figures, according to a meeting of deputy finance ministers and central bankers Friday.

The IMF's bid to raise its lending capacity by up to $500 billion, announced this week, was high on the agenda for members of 19 major economies and the European Union meeting in Mexico City amid the continuing European debt crisis.

Eastman Kodak Co. has a little over a year to reshape its money-losing businesses and deliver a get-out-of-bankruptcy plan.

Girded by a $950 million financing deal with Citigroup Inc., the photography pioneer aims to keep operating normally during bankruptcy while it peddles a trove of digital-imaging patents.

Europe has taken a step back from the brink.

Three weeks into the year, borrowing rates for debt-saddled countries have fallen to more manageable levels. Auctions of government debt have gone better, a sign of increased investor confidence.

Oil prices were higher in Asian trade Friday as a weaker U.S. currency encouraged buying of the dollar-priced commodity.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in February, was up 26 cents to $100.65 a barrel in the afternoon.

Asian markets rose for a fourth straight day Friday on strong French and Spanish bond sales, the lowest U.S. jobs claims for almost four years and hopes Greece will agree a debt deal with its creditors.

The euro also strengthened against the dollar and the yen as fears over the Eurozone crisis abated while financial plays were lifted by more upbeat earnings reports from U.S. banks.

Moody's on Friday downgraded Japanese electronics titans Sony and Panasonic, warning both companies faced a long struggle if they were to get back on a firm financial footing.

The agency lowered its assessment on debt issued by Sony from A3 to Baa1, citing "weak and volatile" earnings, while Panasonic slipped a notch from A1 to A2, on fears "the weakness in Panasonic's profile will continue".

Greece raced on Friday to clinch debt-saving deals in parallel negotiations with private creditors and its EU-IMF bailout partners ahead of a looming default in March.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos was scheduled to meet again with global bank group representatives after late-night talks on Thursday as his finance minister held talks with senior EU-IMF auditors on a new Eurozone rescue loan.

Syria has lost more than $2 billion in revenues since September 1 as a result of European and U.S. bans on importing its oil, Oil Minister Sufian Allaw said on Thursday.

"We have suffered important losses as a result of our inability to export crude oil and petroleum products," Allaw told a news conference in Damascus.