With little hope for the world economy picking up pace soon, governments must tackle reforms at home to kickstart growth, the OECD said on Friday.

Promoting entrepreneurship, labour mobility and higher productivity were all on the menu of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) recommendations to policymakers.

Britain could face a decade of economic uncertainty if it leaves the European Union, a senior business leader has warned ahead of a membership referendum on June 23.

Simon Walker, director general of the Institute of Directors (IoD), said that Britain could experience years of job losses, higher prices and slower economic growth if it voted to leave.

Russia sounded the alarm bells on Thursday over growing risks in its airline industry, saying more carriers could go bankrupt.

Last October, Russia's second-biggest carrier Transaero stopped flying due to financial problems.

G20 finance ministers gather in Shanghai from Friday with the global economy assailed on multiple fronts, from China's slowing growth to weak commodity prices, amid simmering disagreements over how best to face the challenges.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday warned risks of a "derailed recovery" are growing, citing China's faltering economy, falling oil and commodities prices and financial market turbulence.

Beijing has surpassed New York City to become the "billionaire capital of the world" with 100 resident billionaires to the U.S. business and cultural capital's 95, a survey showed. 

The number of Beijing billionaires rose by 32 from last year, while New York's tally rose by just four, according to the Hurun Report, a China-based publisher of luxury magazines and compiler of an annual list of the country's richest people.

Oil fell in Asia on Thursday, ending a brief rally stoked by news U.S. gasoline inventories fell after OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia shot down hopes for an output cut.

Prices rose the previous day as traders looked past an increase in U.S. commercial crude inventories to a record high to a fall in stocks of refined products like gasoline. 

France's biggest automobile maker PSA Peugeot Citroen said Wednesday it moved back into the black in 2015 with a net profit of 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) after a successful restructuring and on higher demand, two years after it almost went to the wall.

Europe's second biggest carmaker revealed a 5.7-percent rise in sales to 56.3 billion euros as it said it would unveil its new "strategic sustainable growth plan" on April 5.

Dubai International, already the world's busiest airport by international passenger traffic, opened a new extension on Wednesday that will raise its annual capacity to 90 million passengers.

The opening of Concourse D is the "result of a $1.2 billion investment to enhance service and boost capacity for the more than 70 international airlines," Dubai Airports said in a statement.

The pound on Wednesday fell below $1.40 to a fresh seven-year low on growing worries that Britain may vote to leave the European Union, as Prime Minister David Cameron ramps up his bid to stay in the 28-nation bloc.

Sterling briefly dropped as low as $1.3975 in morning Tokyo trade, its lowest since March 2009.

South Africa's finance minister walks a tightrope Wednesday as he presents a budget watched closely by ratings agencies that are on the verge of downgrading the country's debt to junk status.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank predict South Africa's growth this year will slide to less than one percent -- far below levels needed to deal with unemployment running at 25 percent.