India's hawkish central bank kept key interest rates unchanged Tuesday at its first meeting to set monetary policy since new pro-growth Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office.

After meeting in the financial capital Mumbai, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the benchmark repo rate, at which it lends to commercial banks, would remain steady at 8.0 percent.

Inflation in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, it set to slow in May, data showed on Monday, turning up the pressure on the European Central Bank to act and avert deflation, analysts said.

According to closely watched state regional data published so far, German inflation looks set to have slowed in May from the 1.3 percent recorded in April.

The International Air Transport Association said on Monday that it expects airline companies to record combined net profits of $18 billion this year.

Revenues were forecast to reach $746 billion, IATA director general Tony Tyler said in Doha, pointing out that net margins stood to average 2.4 percent only. 

Crisis-hit Ukraine won a vital reprieve from Russia on Monday when Moscow pushed back a possible cut in gas shipments, which would also impact parts of Europe, until next week.

Russia's surprise decision came hours before the two sides were to lock horns in Brussels over a price dispute that emerged when Moscow cancelled the discounts it awarded the pro-Kremlin regime which was ousted in February street protests.

If you want to predict goals, follow the money, say German economists who have used footballers' value to predict a Spain-Germany World Cup final.

Researchers from the DIW Institute in Berlin based their model on the market value of each team, using the transfer fees of the players. 

The euro rebounded from three-month lows against the dollar Friday but remained relatively weak ahead of next week's key meeting of the European Central Bank.

The euro pushed to $1.3630 from the $1.36 line Thursday, but still remained far below its recent peak over $1.39.

Fresh merger and acquisition activity helped lift U.S. stocks higher in a holiday-shortened week that was otherwise light on trading catalysts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 110.90 points (0.67 percent) for the week to 16,717.17, setting a fresh record on Friday.

China has signaled it will further ease monetary policy to kick-start the world's second largest economy by cutting the amount of funds that some banks must hold in reserve, according to a government statement.

The State Council, China's cabinet, announced after a meeting on Friday that it would trim reserve requirements for banks which lend to the agricultural sector and small enterprises, said the statement posted on the central government website.

Home prices in major Chinese cities posted their first monthly decline in nearly two years in May, an independent survey showed Saturday, providing new evidence the once red-hot market is losing steam.

The average price of a new home in 100 major cities declined this month by 0.32 percent from April to 10,978 yuan ($1,758) per square metre, according to the China Index Academy (CIA), the first fall since June 2012.

The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce made an urgent plea Thursday to relaunch relations between Cuba and the United States.

Thomas Donohue spoke at the end of the highest-profile visit of an American official to the communist-ruled island in years.