The consortium developing an immense Azerbaijani natural gas field in the Caspian Sea signed on Tuesday a final investment deal that paves the way for the first deliveries to Europe.

The Shah Deniz II consortium signed off on the final decision worth about $28 billion (20 billion euros) of investment that triggers the start of construction of a major new pipeline to Europe.

The Philippine economy should grow 7.0 percent this year and between 6.5 and 7.5 percent next year despite the devastation caused by a killer typhoon and an earthquake, the government said Tuesday.

Economic planning minister Arsenio Balisacan said that while losses in agriculture caused by Super Typhoon Haiyan in November were expected to hit growth in the near term, rebuilding would likely make up for it further down the line.

Britain's banking reform bill cleared its final legislative hurdle late on Monday, paving the way for a raft of new regulations including the "ring fencing" of banks' retail and investment divisions.

A vote in the House of Lords, Britain's upper chamber, rubber-stamped the government's plans for reforming the embattled sector, ending a challenge from the opposition Labor party, which wanted a licensing system on banking standards to be included.

Australia is facing years of deficit with a Aus$17 billion (U.S.$15.2 billion) blowout since September elections as the economy struggles to deal with an unwinding mining investment boom, the treasurer said Tuesday.

Joe Hockey said the conservative government had inherited a "simply unsustainable" budget from center-left Labor and warned that without urgent action Australia would be in the red for a decade, with a deficit of Aus$47 billion this financial year.

Sudan's new cabinet on Monday approved a budget ruling out price increases, after the slashing of fuel subsidies in September led to the worst urban unrest of President Omar al-Bashir's regime.

"This budget will not include increases in taxation, nor will it raise other prices," Finance Minister Badereldien Mahmoud told reporters after ministers endorsed the 2014 budget.

Fears that the recovery in the 17-country eurozone has stalled were eased somewhat Monday after a survey showed business sentiment across the region rising for the first time in three months despite renewed weakness in the French economy.

The monthly purchasing managers' index for the eurozone from financial information company Markit rose to 52.1 in December from 51.7 in November. Anything above 50 indicates expansion.

Once the preserve of cyber geeks or of dodgy traders, the virtual currency bitcoin can now not only be used to buy goods online but also pay for a degree at the University of Nicosia.

Yet the newfound popularity of the currency, which was worth almost nothing until April 2011 and which now trades at around $1,000, may well prove its undoing.

French carmaker Renault signed a $1.3 billion joint venture agreement with China's Dongfeng Monday, finally ending a decade without a manufacturing presence in the world's biggest car market.

Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn described the project as a "strategic alliance".

Japanese business confidence has soared to a six-year high, the country's central bank said Monday, underscoring growing optimism among major companies despite a slowdown in the world's third-largest economy.

The Bank of Japan's quarterly Tankan survey, which polled more than 10,500 firms, surged to its strongest level since December 2007, with a reading for large manufacturers rising to plus 16 from plus 12 in September.

Hundreds of Cypriots protested on Saturday against harsh austerity measures imposed since the eurozone country agreed a tough bailout agreement in March.

Demonstrators from mainly leftwing unions, students and others gathered outside the finance ministry and marched on the presidential palace to voice their anger at a steep fall in the standard of living.