India on Saturday launched its biggest ever fiscal reform with the government promising that a new nationwide tax would make the economy stronger and less corrupt, but businesses are nervous about the revolution.

The new goods and services tax (GST) replaces more than a dozen levies imposed nationally and by the 29 states. It aims to transform the nation of 1.3 billion people and its $2 trillion economy into a single market.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed the “Lebanon Private Sector Support” project, a line of credit in a combined amount of EUR 265 million to support projects conducted by small- and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-cap companies in Lebanon, it said in a statement on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday extended Moscow's embargo on food products from the West until the end of 2018, continuing its policy of retaliation for sanctions over Ukraine.

Eurozone inflation slipped further below the European Central Bank's near 2.0 percent target rate in June, largely due to a sharp drop in energy prices, official figures showed Friday.

The United States slapped unprecedented sanctions Thursday on a Chinese bank accused of laundering North Korean cash after President Donald Trump said Beijing's efforts to put the brakes on Pyongyang's nuclear drive had failed.

As South Korea's new president visited Washington, the Treasury Department announced the Bank of Dandong would be severed from the US financial system for acting "as a conduit for illicit North Korean financial activity."

Japanese inflation rose again in May, government data showed Friday, but it remains way off the central bank's target while weak household spending underlined the challenges still facing Tokyo's battle to ramp up prices.

The United Arab Emirates' energy minister says his country has sufficient resources to ward off any energy shortfall stemming from Gulf countries' standoff with key gas supplier Qatar.

Suhail Al Mazrouel told The Associated Press in Paris on Thursday that the UAE has "a backup plan that we can source fuel from." The UAE, he insisted, has no concerns about any shortfall "now or ever."

Egypt announced a new sharp increase in fuel prices on Thursday, as it slashes government subsidies in a tough IMF-backed reform program.

Societe Generale de Banque au Liban (SGBL) signed a financing agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) in the framework of a program dedicated to support small and medium-sized enterprises in Lebanon.

German consumers are expected to remain cheerful through July, pollsters GfK said Thursday, as the public falls in step with general optimism about Europe's largest economy.