The global economy is strengthening but faces threats from super-low inflation and outflows of capital from emerging economies, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday.

The lending organization expects the global economy to grow 3.6 percent this year and 3.9 percent in 2015, up from 3 percent last year. Those figures are just one-tenth of a percentage point below the IMF's previous forecasts in January.

Kuwait said Tuesday it will supply Egypt with 85,000 barrels of oil daily and 1.5 million tonnes of fuel for three years as part of a newly agreed commercial deal.

The supplies would be valued at market prices and delivered by the end of 2016 under the agreement struck on Monday, said Kuwait Petroleum Corp. marketing chief Ibrahim al-Mudhaf.

Industrial output across Britain rose by a robust 0.9 percent in February compared with activity in January, official data showed on Tuesday, cementing the country's economic recovery.

And over 12 months, output jumped by 2.7 percent, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) added in a statement.

South Korea and Australia signed a free trade deal Tuesday which will scrap almost all tariffs within a decade while immediately lifting levies on some key exports, including South Korean cars and Australian wine.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said there was "huge untapped potential" in trade between the two countries as the deal was signed, wrapping up four years of negotiations.

Oil prices rose in Asian trade Tuesday on renewed fears about Ukraine after pro-Russian protesters seized government buildings in the eastern city of Donetsk.

New York's main contract West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery rose 51 cents to $100.95 a barrel in afternoon trade and Brent North Sea crude for May gained 26 cents to $106.08.

The Bank of Japan on Tuesday painted an upbeat picture of the world's number three economy and stood pat on its monetary easing program as it assesses the impact of a controversial sales tax rise.

Policymakers decided to hold fire on the multi-billion-dollar asset-purchase scheme introduced in April last year as part of a drive by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to drag the country out of years of deflation and slumbering growth.

Bank of Cyprus said Monday it is looking "positively" at a revised offer to sell its loss-making PJSC Ukrainian unit to Russia's Alfa Group as part of a restructuring drive.

In January, BoC, the island's largest lender, said it had agreed to sell its 99.77 percent stake in the subsidiary to ABH Ukraine, which is part of Alfa Group, for 225 million euros ($308 million).

Italy's public deficit inched down to 2.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2013 -- 0.1 of a point lower than in 2012 and staying below the EU threshold of 3.0 percent, official data showed on Monday.

The data came a day before Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is to adopt on Tuesday an economic program setting out economic growth and debt and deficit reduction targets for the next three years.

Nigeria on Sunday became Africa's biggest economy, leap-frogging South Africa, after the government announced a long-overdue rebasing of the country's gross domestic product.

The new calculations take into account changes in production and consumption since the last time the exercise was carried out in 1990, including an added focus on communications and the movie industry.

The World Bank said Monday developing countries in East Asia will grow 7.1 percent in 2014 as they benefit from a stabilizing global economy and withstand the impact of U.S. stimulus cuts.

The estimate for gross domestic product (GDP) expansion remains unchanged from last year, making East Asia the world's fastest-growing region, the bank said in its East Asia and Pacific Economic Update report.