China is in talks with the International Monetary Fund for the Washington-based institution to add the yuan to its basket of reserve currencies, a top banking official said Thursday as Beijing seeks a greater global role for the unit.

It hopes the yuan will become part of the IMF's "special drawing rights" (SDR) assets "in the foreseeable future", said vice central bank governor Yi Gang.

Greece and its international creditors were to begin fiscal talks in Athens on Thursday, with technical experts getting to grips on drawing up a new economic plan for the troubled eurozone nation.

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said a "fact-finding mission" would gather data to assist the talks held in Brussels.

The French economy, the second largest in the eurozone, remained stuck in deflation in February, according to official figures published Thursday, as the European Central Bank launched an anti-deflation program.

Consumer rices declined by 0.3 percent in February compared to the same period last year, the national statistics office said in a statement.

The euro resumed its slump Thursday, sitting around 12-year lows against the dollar, as the European Central Bank's new stimulus and the likelihood of a U.S. rate hike push the embattled unit closer to parity with the greenback.

In Tokyo afternoon trade, the common currency fell to $1.0515, down from $1.0548 in New York where it hit $1.0510 at one stage.

The European Central Bank's massive bond purchase programme will not ease pressure on governments to reform, but actually magnify the benefits of those reforms, ECB president Mario Draghi said Wednesday.

"The beneficial impact of our asset purchases on financing conditions, rather than reducing the incentives for reforms, will actually increase the benefits of such reforms," Draghi told a banking conference in Frankfurt.

In a rare piece of good news for Greek leaders, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) confirmed Tuesday that it has been forced to throw the cash-strapped country a half-billion-euro lifeline. 

After a week in which the Eurogroup of finance ministers and the European Central Bank turned the screws on Athens, the 555 million euros ($593 million) will give its radical new government a brief respite from its creditors.

Egypt hosts a foreign investor conference Friday it hopes will jump-start its battered economy while showcasing international support for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as he battles increasingly radical Islamist opponents.

Sisi, a former army chief voted into office after toppling his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi, has positioned himself as a frontline ally in the regional fight against Islamist militants, arguing that his country deserves more international support.

The dollar marched higher Wednesday, supported by expectations for a mid-year U.S. rate hike and diverging policy paths between the U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks.

The U.S. currency's unrelenting rise saw it jump against a string of global peers, including the euro and yen, while it also advanced against emerging market currencies from the Indonesian rupiah to the Thai baht.

Under the patronage of the Minister of Tourism, His Excellency Mr. Michel Pharaon, ihjoz, the first digital ticketing network in Lebanon, hosted a conference entitled: Ticketing in the Digital Age for Events and Tourism. The event was held at the Hilton Hotel on March 10, 2015, in the presence of partners, industry stakeholders and key members of the press.

Panelists at the ihjoz conference included His Excellency Mr. Michel Pharaon, Minister of Tourism, Mr. Khalil Daoud, CEO of LibanPost, Mrs. Randa Bdeir, Head of Electronic Banking at Bank Audi, Mr. Bassam Tueni, co-founder of ihjoz, and Sami Tueni, co-founder and CEO of ihjoz.

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.