The euro tumbled Tuesday towards a 12-year dollar low, hit by eurozone stimulus, growing U.S. rate hike speculation and Greek debt concerns, dealers said.

In morning London deals, the European single currency sank to $1.0735 -- the lowest level since mid-April 2003. The region's stock markets were lower.

Italy will commit 8.0 billion euros ($8.6 billion) to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's plan to boost economic growth, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Tuesday.

EU leaders last December approved the broad outline of Juncker's 315 billion euro investment plan, intended to kick-start growth in Europe by financing hundreds of projects.

The United Arab Emirates has denied claims from U.S. airlines of lavishing its fast-growing carriers with state subsidies as "false and unacceptable," local media reports said Tuesday.

The three top U.S. airlines last week accused Dubai's Emirates, Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways of receiving subsidies from their governments amounting to $42 billion (39 billion euros).

South Korean companies will be penalised if they yield to pressure from North Korea to raise the salaries of workers in their joint Kaesong joint industrial complex, Seoul officials said Tuesday.

Seoul has been seeking talks for several weeks since Pyongyang announced it planned to unilaterally raise the basic salary of the 53,000 North Korean workers employed across more than 100 South Korean firms operating in Kaesong.

China's consumer inflation rebounded in February from a more-than-five-year low, official data showed Tuesday, but a plunge in factory gate prices added to persistent concerns about deflation in the world's second-largest economy.

The 1.4 percent increase in the consumer price index (CPI) compared with a gain of 0.8 percent in January, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) figures.

Credit Suisse announced on Tuesday that Tidjane Thiam, currently chief of UK-based insurer Prudential, will take over as chief executive from Brady Dougan who will step down at the end of June.

During his eight-year term Dougan steered the bank through the financial crisis and through a tax evasion probe by the U.S. Justice Department that eventually saw the Swiss banking giant slapped with a $2.8 billion fine.

Saudi Arabia on Monday vowed "zero tolerance" against the illegal employment of migrants, more than a year after tens of thousands of foreigners were deported in an earlier crackdown.

The labor and interior ministries "confirm that the inspection campaigns aim to track violators of labor and residency," the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.

Greece faced deepening skepticism ahead of talks on Monday on its plans for reforms to secure a financial lifeline as Athens warned of a possible referendum if its proposals are rejected.

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said "there could be problems" if his colleagues from the 19-country eurozone do not accept the list that he is due to present at the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels.

Oil prices fell in Asia Monday, pressed by a stronger U.S. dollar and ongoing concern about swelling U.S. inventories that are adding to a global supply glut, analysts said. 

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dipped 11 cents to $49.50 a barrel while Brent shed 33 cents to $59.40 in afternoon trade. 

A drop in German exports caused the country's trade surplus to contract in January, official data showed on Monday.

Exports declined by 2.1 percent in January, driving down the trade surplus, the balance between imports and exports, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement.