Russia's finance ministry said Friday it was suing Ukraine for defaulting on a $3-billion debt to Moscow, following an order by President Vladimir Putin.

Kiev is "in a state of default" regarding its obligations toward Moscow and legal proceedings would ensue, the ministry said.

Japan's All Nippon Airways is buying three Airbus A380s in a billion-dollar deal, business daily Nikkei said Friday, making it the first Japanese carrier to own the superjumbo jet.

The Japanese airline plans to introduce the double-decker planes on flights to Hawaii and other overseas destinations, in an effort to boost its international business.

China's new home prices increased in December for the fifth straight month, a survey showed Friday, following a series of stimulus measures aimed at boosting lending.

The gains come as authorities have vowed to stabilize China's property market -- a key pillar of the world's second-largest economy.

Ukraine's free-trade deal with the EU comes into effect Friday, coinciding with the start of Moscow's food embargo against Kiev that will force the impoverished former Soviet republic to revisit its economic model.

The free-trade accord is part of the broader EU Association Agreement -- signed at the end of June 2014 -- and stands at the heart of the drastic deterioration of Ukraine's relations with Russia, furious at seeing its Soviet-era satellite turn to the West.

South Korea's exports fell last year at their fastest rate since the global financial crisis, with 12 straight monthly declines fueled by a strong won and plunging oil prices.

The government data published Friday is a grim annual report for a country whose exports account for roughly half of its economic output.

Oil prices pared losses Thursday but ended 2015 sharply lower as the "black gold" was battered by prolonged global oversupply and a slowdown in energy-hungry China's economy.

North Sea Brent, the European benchmark for oil, dropped almost 35 percent over the year, while the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 30 percent.

Chinese stocks ended 2015 slightly higher despite a wild ride that saw trillions wiped off market capitalization in a summer rout that shook global markets and prompted an unprecedented government rescue package.

From January 1 to mid-June the Shanghai market -- which had already surged by more than 50 percent in 2014 -- leaped by 60 percent again.

Russia's finance minister predicted Wednesday that 2016 would be a difficult year for his country's recession-hit economy, already reeling from low oil prices. 

As the economy slides, Russia's battered ruble reached a 2015 low on Wednesday, standing at 73.24 against the dollar, a year after suffering its worst decline in 15 years.

Oman's government will hike fuel prices, charges for public services and corporate taxes in the face of falling oil prices, the official ONA agency reported Wednesday.

Non-OPEC Oman is the latest Gulf state to announce austerity plans amid falling oil revenues that have lead to big budget deficits.

Global economic growth will be "disappointing and patchy" in 2016, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, wrote in an article published in the German business daily Handelsblatt on Wednesday. 

Rising interest rates in the United States, the economic slowdown in China, the persistent fragility of the financial system in a number of countries and the effects of low oil prices on producer countries "all mean that global growth in 2016 will be disappointing and patchy," Lagarde wrote.