Already investigating credit-card giant Visa, the European Commission launched Tuesday a fresh anti-trust probe into its rival MasterCard over payment of inter-bank fees.

The Commission said it had concerns that some of MasterCard's "inter-bank fees and related practices may be anti-competitive," citing the need to ensure a level playing field in a huge and growing market.

Inflation in China slowed to 2.1 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday, down from 3.2 percent in February when prices spiked during the Lunar New Year holiday.

The March rise in the consumer price index (CPI) -- a main gauge of inflation -- was lower than the median forecast of 2.4 percent in a poll of 16 economists by Dow Jones Newswires.

Amid a massive scandal involving France's former budget minister and an undeclared Swiss bank account, Swiss banks are more eager than ever to kick out tax cheats and clear their names, bankers and industry experts say.

Tax evasion has become "a real problem for Swiss banks, because it is damaging their reputation" an analyst with a large Zurich-based bank told Agence France Presse, requesting anonymity.

The Asian Development Bank said Tuesday the region's emerging economies would pick up this year but warned that the recovery remained fragile due to the eurozone crisis and tensions in Asia.

The Manila-based lender said in its latest forecast that the uptick in China's economy and "robust growth" in Southeast Asia would lead expansion, which would be also boosted by strong domestic consumption.

Qatar pledged $500 million in aid to rebuild Sudan's war-ravaged western region of Darfur, the official QNA news agency on Monday quoted a minister as saying.

"Qatar has pledged an amount of $500 million as grants and contributions for rebuilding Darfur," said the gas-rich emirate's minister of state for cabinet affairs, Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Mahmud.

A trove of data obtained by a U.S.-based journalists' group that details thousands of offshore accounts reveals several instances of swindles and other financial crimes, The Washington Post newspaper reported Sunday.

Among the 4,000 U.S. individuals listed in the records, at least 30 were American citizens accused in lawsuits or criminal cases of fraud, money laundering or other serious financial misconduct, the report said.

Greece's central bank on Sunday said the country's main four lenders would be recapitalized separately, a move that put on hold a planned merger between two of them.

"The Bank of Greece confirms that the recapitalization process for the four systemic banks (National Bank, Alpha, Eurobank, Piraeus) is proceeding normally and will conclude in April in any case," the central bank said.

Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho called for severe cuts in public spending after a court rejected a number of austerity measures, as the EU warned the debt-hit nation to respect the aims of its international bailout.

In an address to the nation Sunday, Coelho said there would be no new tax hikes in 2013 but that measures would be taken to "contain public spending in the areas of social security, health and education".

A ban on "rip-off" surcharges imposed on credit card spending came into force in Britain on Saturday, meaning traders must ensure that the extra fees reflect genuine processing costs.

The ban on excessive charges for paying for goods and services such as flights and entertainment tickets by credit or debit card was welcomed by campaigners.

Turkey's energy minister has criticized the United States not joining in the $22 billion tender to build the country's second nuclear power plant, local media reported on Saturday.

"If we are not building the nuclear power plant with America, which strategic project will we handle with them?" Energy Minister Taner Yildiz was quoted as telling the daily Hurriyet newspaper.