Banks in recession-hit Cyprus, reeling from a financial crisis, are struggling with non-performing loans that make up nearly half their lending and are hampering efforts to finance a cash-starved economy.

The central bank says banks' liquidity is sufficient to absorb NPLs up to a certain point, but fast action is needed as the figure is rising.

Australia's central bank held its cash rate steady at a record low of 2.50 percent Tuesday and hinted at a prolonged pause, saying a period of interest rate stability was prudent as the mining boom unwinds.

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Glenn Stevens said the board had decided to leave interest rates on hold for a fifth consecutive month, as expected by analysts.

Online advertising spending totaled $300 million in the MENA region today, and is increasing at a 37% growth rate a year to reach an astounding $1B in 2017.

“Online advertising is an essential driver for the growth of Arab web and mobile businesses. With the increase of ad budgets, the entire digital sector will flourish,” stated Omar Christidis, CEO and founder of ArabNet.

After dragging Spain's financial sector to the brink of disaster, Bankia reported Monday a resounding return to profit in 2013 and said it had finished a painful restructuring two years early.

Bankia, saved from bankruptcy in 2012 with an injection of 18 billion euros ($24 billion) in eurozone rescue loans, reported a net profit of 509 million euros in 2013, after a catastrophic 19.2-billion-euro loss the previous year.

Belgian biotechnology company Ablynx said on Monday it has signed a cancer research cooperation accord with U.S. pharmaceuticals giant Merck & Co. which could be worth up to 1.7 billion euros ($2.3 billion).

The contract, to identify proteins which may lead to cancer immunotherapy treatments, involves an initial payment of 20 million euros plus 10.7 million euros for the three-year research program.

Britain's state-rescued bank Lloyds said Monday it will take an extra hit of almost £2.0 ($3.3 billion, 2.4 billion euros) to cover mis-selling claims, but expected to make a "small" annual profit.

Lloyds, which is 33-percent owned by the taxpayer, added it would seek to resume shareholder dividend payments in the second half of this year, while the lender was preparing for the government to sell more of its stake.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways said Sunday it has entered the final stage of an assessment whether to purchase a stake in Italy's debt-laden airline Alitalia.

The two carriers "have entered the final phase of a due diligence process about a possible investment by Etihad Airways in Alitalia," confirmed James Hogan, chief executive of Etihad Airways, and Gabriele Del Torchio, his Alitalia counterpart, according to a statement by Etihad.

China's official gauge of its manufacturing sector slipped to a five-month low in January, the government announced Saturday, confirming a slowdown in factory activity in the world's second largest economy.

The monthly purchasing managers' index (PMI) declined to 50.5 in January after recording 51 in December and 51.4 in November, according to the government's National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

Taiwan said Saturday a record 2.85 million Chinese nationals visited the island last year, up ten percent from 2012 although group arrivals dropped slightly after Beijing enacted a tourism law.

The number of solo Chinese travelers surged 174 percent to 522,000 people compared with 191,000 in 2012, the government said.

Russia's economy chief said on Friday that the country had survived the worst of its sharp growth slowdown and was on the path toward cautious expansion in the coming year.

Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said he thought Russia's $1.1-trillion economy had suffered its most dire phase in the fall of 2013 and that agriculture and industry were now both picking up steam.