Spain must stay the course on economic reforms if it wants to generate growth and reduce its sky-high unemployment rate, ahead of a year-end general election, the International Monetary Fund said Friday.

"The clearer we are in not reversing existing structural reforms and fiscal consolidation, the stronger is the defence against any external risks," said Helge Berger, chief of the IMF mission in Spain following the publication of the body's annual report on the country.

Nine major banks accused of foreign-exchange rigging have agreed to pay more than $2 billion to investors in settlements, a law firm involved in the process said Thursday.

Plaintiffs have "reached settlements totaling more than $2 billion with Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, RBS and UBS," legal firm Hausfeld said in a statement published after a hearing in New York.

Russia on Thursday broadened a food embargo imposed in retaliation for Western sanctions over Ukraine to include Iceland, a significant fish importer, as well as Montenegro, Albania and Liechtenstein.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Ukraine will be added to the embargo from January 1 next year when a landmark EU-Ukraine trade deal enters force, unless Kiev makes a deal with Moscow.

Lawmakers in Greece began Thursday debating a third international bailout, ahead of a vote on the 85-billion-euro ($94.8-billion) rescue package, on which eurozone finance ministers are to give their verdict Friday. 

"The timetable is tight so we are forced into this emergency procedure," Gerasimos Balaouras, a lawmaker from the leftist Syriza party of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said, kickstarting the debate in parliamentary committees.

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Global gold demand weakened in the second quarter as purchases fell in key consuming nations China and India, the World Gold Council said on Thursday.

"Total demand was 915 tonnes, a fall of 12 percent compared to the same period last year, due mainly to a decline in demand from consumers in India and China," the WGC said in a quarterly update.

Asian currencies gained Thursday, rebounding from the worst two-day rout in almost 20 years after China reassured markets it would not engage in a currency war. 

Emerging market currencies including the Indonesian rupiah, Philippine peso and South Korean won rose slightly against the dollar after China Thursday trimmed its yuan reference rate 1.1 percent. 

The dollar rose against a range of Asia-Pacific currencies on Wednesday after China cut the value of the yuan against the greenback for a second consecutive day.

The dollar added to the previous day's gains against the Indonesian rupiah, Indian rupee and South Korean won, while it dipped to 124.81 yen in late trade in Tokyo after earlier jumping past its New York price of 125.12 yen.

India's government is seeking damages of nearly $100 million from Nestle for "unfair trade practices" after the food safety watchdog banned its hugely popular Maggi noodles brand.

The government said Wednesday it has filed a suit with the country's top consumer court for 6,400 million rupees ($98.6 million) in damages from the Indian arm of the Swiss food giant.

China's currency fell further Wednesday following a surprise change in its exchange rate mechanism that rattled global markets and threatens to fan trade tensions with the United States and Europe.

The central bank said the yuan's 1.9 percent devaluation Tuesday against the U.S. dollar, which was its biggest one-day fall in a decade, was due to changes aimed at making the tightly controlled currency more market-oriented. That raised the prospect of still more declines, which would help struggling Chinese exporters at the expense of foreign competitors and might shore up flagging economic growth.