The Philippines said Wednesday it will join the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, despite being engaged in a dispute with Beijing over its claims in the South China Sea.

Global economic growth will be disappointing next year and the outlook for the medium-term has also deteriorated, the head of the International Monetary Fund said in a guest article for German newspaper Handelsblatt published on Wednesday.

Indian IPOs are set to raise more than $5 billion in 2016, a six-year high, as corporate profit growth and a pickup in the economy drive investor demand for equities and lure firms such as Vodafone's local unit to list.

China's central bank has suspended at least three foreign banks from conducting some foreign exchange business until the end of March, three sources who had seen the suspension notices told Reuters on Wednesday.

India has earmarked 50 billion rupees ($753 million) to pay for the installation of rooftop solar panels over the next five years that will generate up to 4,200 megawatts of power, the government said on Wednesday.

After sliding into the $40s in early 2015, crude oil gained back some lost ground by summer, reclaiming the $60-a-barrel level. But as supply kept coming and demand remained sluggish, prices saw renewed pressure.

India's mobile phone subscriber base peaked to more than 1 billion users for the first time, data released by the telecom regulator on Wednesday showed, making India the only country after China to achieve that milestone.

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.

Singapore's trade and industry minister has called for a resumption of free trade talks between the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations now that problems over Myanmar have been removed, a German newspaper said.

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.

China could run its biggest budget deficit in perhaps half a century next year as leaders turn to government spending to arrest the slowdown in the economy, policy advisers say, after disappointing returns from a year of monetary policy easing.

The volume of loans to the private sector in the euro area expanded in November, with a bigger bounce recorded than the previous

Apple has agreed to pay Italy 318 million euros ($348 million) to settle a tax dispute after the US tech giant was investigated for suspected fraud, the country's tax agency said Tuesday.

Opec kingpin Saudi Arabia posted a record $98 billion budget deficit in 2015 due to the sharp fall in oil prices, the finance ministry said on Monday.

FACEBOOK founder Mark Zuckerberg urged India Monday to approve a controversial plan that would provide a free Internet service to the poor, his latest bid amid an escalating row with authorities.

JAPAN'S factory output declined in November, official data showed Monday, falling back after two months of gains as the economy struggles to mount a recovery.

SHIPPING companies that transport commodities such as coal, iron ore and grain face a painful year ahead, with only the strongest expected to weather a deepening crisis caused by tepid demand and a surplus of vessels for hire.

China's central bank said on Monday that it would "flexibly" use various policy tools to maintain appropriate liquidity and reasonable growth in credit and social financing.

Russia's battered ruble on Monday reached its 2015 low as the slump in oil prices weighs on the outlook for the country's recession-hit

The eurozone is not expected to welcome any new members in the coming years, as the region's long crisis seems to have put some countries off, deputy European Commission chief said in a newspaper interview Monday.