Dubai's economy will continue to grow in 2012, despite persistent contraction in its once rapidly-booming construction sector, thanks to healthy trade and tourism, an official and economists said Wednesday.

Growth in the gross domestic product of the debt-laden emirate is "expected to be over 4.5 percent this year," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, the head of the Dubai Economic Sector Committee.

World stock markets sagged Tuesday after ratings agency Moody's slapped credit downgrades on six European Union countries due to the region's weak economic outlook and uncertain attempts to implement reforms.

Benchmark oil hovered above $100 per barrel while the dollar rose against the euro and the yen.

A strike over pension reforms by harbor pilots has largely paralyzed traffic to the Belgian ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge.

The pilots who have to lead ships into the two ports demand that their profession be exempted from the government plans to add two years to the retirement age.

Oil prices hovered below $101 a barrel Tuesday in Asia ahead of U.S. crude supply figures that will provide clues about the strength of demand.

Benchmark crude for March delivery was up 1 cent at $100.92 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.24 to settle at $100.91 on Monday.

A Kuwait-based leasing firm has ordered 35 more Airbus A320neo planes for $3.4 billion based on catalogue prices, the European aircraft maker said on Tuesday.

The purchase will be in addition to 50 A320neo aircraft ordered by the Aviation Lease and Finance Company (ALAFCO) at the Dubai Airshow last year, Airbus said in a statement.

Europe's stock markets climbed on Monday after Greek lawmakers approved drastic austerity measures, amid violent street battles and blazing buildings in the streets of Athens.

In late morning deals, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index jumped 0.99 percent to 5,910.04 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 added 0.77 percent to 6,744.36 points and in Paris the CAC 40 advanced 0.48 percent to 3,389.43.

Leading indicators are beginning to point to a turnaround in the world's major developed economies, led by the United States and Japan, the OECD said on Monday after months of gloomy data.

At the same time, China continues to slow down, at a faster pace than in the last monthly report, while the Eurozone reverse showed some moderation, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

Oil prices rose to near $100 a barrel Monday in Asia after the Greek parliament approved new austerity measures that should secure a bailout and avoid bankruptcy.

Benchmark crude for March delivery was up 88 cents at $99.55 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.17 to settle at $98.67 on Friday.

Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait, Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz Al-Sabah, has resigned in protest against the oil-rich Gulf state's steep rise in spending, local media reported on Monday.

Al-Qabas newspaper said the 61-year-old chief banker quit after "objecting to the negative developments in the state's fiscal policy and its dangerous consequences on the national economy."

Tunisian Industry Minister Mohamed Lamine Chakhari is in talks with German company Leoni to ward off the closure of a plant in Tunisia that employs some 2,700 people, the ministry said Saturday.

Chakhari went late Friday to Mateur, some 60 kilometers northwest of Tunis, to call for "dialogue ... leading to solutions that take into consideration the future of the business," the ministry said in a communique.