Syria has suffered damage estimated at $31 billion as a result of its three-year civil war, Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi has said, a figure nearly equivalent to its GDP.

"The damage caused by the war in Syria stands at 4.7 trillion Syrian pounds," or $31.3 billion dollars (22.5 billion euros), Halqi told the ruling party's Al-Baath newspaper.

The Philippines will have to downgrade its target to reduce poverty, officials warned Tuesday, a move which would leave an additional four million people virtually destitute in 2016.

Socio-economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said that although economic growth had remained strong, it had failed to lift as many people out of poverty as expected.

The Spanish government expects first quarter growth to "at least" match the 0.2 percent expansion posted in the final quarter of 2013, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said Tuesday.

Spain will post its third successive quarter of economic expansion in the January-March period "with growth which we expect will be at least the same as that which we had in the final quarter of last year," he told a business forum in Madrid.

Vietnam's central bank on Tuesday cut its key interest rates for the first time in nearly a year in an attempt to kick-start the nation's sluggish economy.

The State Bank of Vietnam cut the refinancing rate -- charged on loans to commercial banks -- to 6.5 percent from seven percent.

Iceland's currency, the krona, was declared "dead" five years ago but it survived and with European Union membership ruled out for the forseeable future it is likely to limp on.

"The krona is dead. We need a new currency. The only serious option is the euro," an Icelandic official told the British newspaper The Guardian in January 2009.

Singapore's DBS Bank said Monday it had agreed to buy the Asian private banking business of French lender Societe Generale in a deal worth $220 million, boosting its access to the region's super rich.

DBS said in a statement to the Singapore Exchange that the deal "will accelerate DBS's ambition of becoming a leading wealth manager in Asia".

Oil prices rose in Asia Monday on increased geopolitical tensions, as the United States hinted at fresh sanctions against Moscow after Crimea voted in a referendum to break away from Ukraine and join Russia.

The United States strongly rejected the vote on Sunday, saying it violated Ukraine's constitution and was carried out "under duress of Russian military intervention".

China has announced plans to expand its cities and improve public services to support economic growth by allowing millions more rural residents to migrate to urban jobs.

The Cabinet plan issued Sunday calls for raising the share of China's population of almost 1.4 billion people living in cities to 60 percent from 53.7 percent now, a shift of about 90 million people.

Toyota said Monday it has suspended production at its two Indian auto assembly plants in response to threats against management and "deliberate" assembly-line stoppages, as efforts to hammer out a labor deal failed.

The world's biggest automaker said the move will see the lock-out of about 6,400 employees at the factories in southern India.

China will widen the yuan's daily trading band to two percent from the current one percent, the central bank announced Saturday, underscoring efforts to loosen Beijing's grip on its tightly-controlled currency.

The move will take effect on March 17, the People's Bank of China said in a statement on its web site.