France's public deficit increased by slightly less than expected in 2014, while growth in the eurozone's second biggest economy was confirmed at 0.4 percent, the same as in 2013, the Insee statistics agency said Thursday.

Last year, France's deficit was equivalent to 4.0 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), smaller than the 4.4 percent originally projected, and compared with 4.1 percent in 2013, Insee said in a statement.

The success of the new China-led development bank has caught the United States off guard, after it fought the project and now finds itself increasingly isolated.

Britain, Germany, France... the United States has watched, helpless and dumbfounded, as its European allies flocked to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, seen as a potential rival to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, both institutions under powerful U. .influence.

Oil prices jumped more than five percent in Asia Thursday after Saudi Arabian jets struck rebel targets in Yemen, with fears growing that a spiraling crisis in the country could threaten key crude producers in the Middle East.

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery rose $2.87, or 5.83 percent, to $52.08 while Brent crude for May rose $2.90, or 5.13 percent, to $59.38 in afternoon trade.

The deadly crash of a jet belonging to low-cost carrier Germanwings deals a body blow to the image of its parent company Lufthansa, already battling a bitter labor dispute and ferocious competition from budget rivals, analysts said on Wednesday.

"These are very hard days, undoubtedly one of the hardest days in the history of Lufthansa," the airline's finance chief Simone Menne said, after the group held a minute's silence for all 150 people aboard Germanwings flight 4U 9525, which went down in the French Alps en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.

Iraq's Oil Ministry says crude exports averaged 2.596 million barrels a day in February, far from levels planned to provide the nation with badly needed cash for ongoing military operations against Islamic State extremists.

Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said on Wednesday the exports grossed about $3.402 billion, based on an average price of $46.795 per barrel. Iraq's 2015 budget is based on an expected price of $56 per barrel with a daily export capacity of 3.3 million.

China has given the go-ahead for three more free-trade zones, state media reported, despite the country's first project in Shanghai proving disappointing 18 months after its establishment.

A meeting of the Communist Party's politburo hosted by President Xi Jinping on Tuesday approved zones in the southern province of Guangdong, eastern province of Fujian and northern city of Tianjin, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

H.J. Heinz Co. is buying Kraft Foods, creating one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world with annual revenue in excess of $28 billion.

The deal was engineered by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and the company that owns Heinz, Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital. Berkshire and 3G will invest $10 billion in what will come to be known as The Kraft Heinz Co.

Noble Markets said Tuesday it is adopting Nasdaq technology for its planned Bitcoin exchange, aiming to give institutional investors a credible platform for trading the digital currency.

The startup said it would implement Nasdaq's X-stream Trading technology, already used by more than 30 smaller markets worldwide, to bring the Bitcoin trade to the Wall Street mainstream from often murky fringe exchanges.

The inexorable decline of the single currency offers ambitious Chinese firms a bargain buffet of eurozone business, analysts say, with this weekend's multibillion deal for Italian tyremaker Pirelli only the latest course in an acquisition binge.

Less than a year ago the euro was worth nearly $1.40 on international markets. Earlier this month it stood at less than $1.05, down by a quarter as the European Central Bank embarks on a massive stimulus program while the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to start raising interest rates.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed an improved tone in discussions with debt-mired Greece, after meeting visiting Greek premier Alexis Tsipras Tuesday.

Steinmeier met Tsipras at his hotel in central Berlin one day after the Greek leader held crunch talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in which both called for an end to the bitter recriminations the countries have traded in recent weeks.