China's manufacturing activity expanded at its quickest pace in nearly four years in December, an independent research firm said on Tuesday, in a sign of improving health for the world's second-largest economy.

Worldwide passenger air traffic grew again last year, albeit at a slightly slower pace, led by the dynamic growth of low-cost air carriers, the International Civil Aviation Organization reported Monday.

A total of 3.7 billion passengers were transported by the world's airlines last year, a 6 percent increase from 2015. That was just under the previous year's 7.1 percent rise, the United Nations agency said. 

Ukraine on Monday reported a one-third drop in its use of natural gas and general energy savings that will be cheered by its financial backers from the International Monetary Fund.

South Korea's largest automakers Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia have forecast sales of 8.25 million vehicles this year amid hopes that new factories will tap into emerging markets. 

Hundreds of irate Mexicans marched in Mexico City on Sunday to protest a steep rise in gasoline prices.

They carried signs denouncing President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose government announced last week that the price of gasoline would increase by as much as 20 percent to 0.88 dollars per liter on New Year's Day, while diesel would rise by 16.5 percent to 0.83 dollars.

It was a surprisingly great year for investors brave enough to put money in Brazilian stocks, even though the country spent 2016 floundering through its worst recession in a century and rocked by political instability.

Paradoxically, this year of economic crisis, presidential impeachment and unending corruption scandals in Latin America's largest economy was also a boom year for the Sao Paulo stock exchange.

French companies will be required to guarantee a "right to disconnect" to their employees from Sunday as the country seeks to tackle the modern-day scourge of compulsive out-of-hours email checking.

Mexicans are bracing to kickstart the New Year on a sour note, with protests planned against the government's huge hike in gasoline prices.

President Enrique Pena Nieto has promised that fuel prices will fall thanks to his landmark 2014 energy reform, which ended a seven-decade-old monopoly held by the state-run firm Pemex.

Most world stocks markets were set to finish 2016 in positive territory despite shock votes in Britain and the United States, but the outlook for 2017 is clouded by looming European elections and Brexit.

The euro, used by nearly 340 million people each day, celebrates its 15th birthday on Sunday.