The BRICS nations agreed on Sunday to fast-track the setting up of their own credit-rating agency to better cater to developing economies, rivaling existing ones based in Western countries.

Belgium's coalition government has agreed the basics of its budget, finding savings of some three billion euros ($3.4 billion) to help balance the books.

"Agreement," said Prime Minister Charles Michel in a tweeted message late Friday after lengthy talks finally produced an accord.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro issued the government's 2017 budget by decree Friday, bypassing the opposition-held legislature in a move that could deepen the country's economic crisis.

"Here is the 2017 budget and debt law. May it be fulfilled. I ask for the support of the people, the military and the street," Maduro said at a signing ceremony in Caracas attended by hundreds of supporters.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed lucrative defence and energy pacts on Saturday following talks aimed at reinvigorating ties between the former Cold-War allies.

The parliament of the Belgian region of Wallonia voted Friday to block the CETA free trade deal between the EU and Canada, showing how one rebel local government can sink a key global agreement years in the making.

Indian police held talks with the FBI Friday as they said they believed the kingpin of a multi-million-dollar tax scam that duped thousands of U.S. citizens had fled the country.

Beijing is planning a mega-merger of chemicals giants Sinochem and China National Chemical Corp. in a massive deal that would reshape the chemicals industry, Bloomberg News reported Friday. 

The European Commission's top euro official said Friday there is still a chance for Britain to engineer an amicable "soft Brexit" departure from the EU, but stressed it is up to London to decide.

Dutch top bank ING said Friday it is moving dozens of trading jobs to London, defying expectations of an exodus of financial sector professionals from Britain because of Brexit.

An ING spokeswoman said 60 jobs would be moved from Amsterdam and Brussels to the City of London to join its corporate finance banking team of 650 people already working there, creating a single unit.

Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank said Friday it hoped to raise as much as $100 billion for a new technology investment fund it has set up in partnership with Saudi Arabia.

The company said it would invest about $25 billion in the SoftBank Vision Fund over the next five years, while the Saudi public investment fund will "consider investing in the fund and becoming the lead investment partner".