The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday that OPEC will no longer move to shore up crude prices, arguing that rising North American shale oil output needs to be curbed.

World prices have been falling since June but the pace of the slide accelerated in November when the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to maintain its production unchanged at 30 million barrels per day.

Oil extended its "disconcerting" plunge towards six-year lows in Asia Tuesday after Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs lowered its price forecast, adding to concerns about a supply glut and weak demand.

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for February delivery was down 82 cents at $45.25 a barrel in afternoon trade and Brent crude for February dropped 99 cents to $46.44.

The collapse of Cyprus Airways nearly two years after a financial earthquake shattered the economy has dealt a new blow to the recession-hit Mediterranean island, experts said Monday.

Cyprus is facing record unemployment of around 16 percent, according to economists who say the situation will only worsen as the national carrier's 560 staff are laid off.

Hungary has restarted gas supplies to neighboring Ukraine, Hungarian pipeline network operator FGSZ Zrt said Sunday, after suspending deliveries in September, prompting criticism from Ukraine's state-owned gas firm Naftogaz.

"I can confirm that gas delivery from Hungary to Ukraine has begun," FGSZ spokeswoman Edina Lakatos told AFP in an email.

Goldman Sachs will advise Dublin on its options for selling the state-rescued Allied Irish Banks, finance minister Michael Noonan said Monday as the government seeks to recoup taxpayers' cash.

Dublin nationalized 99.8 percent of Allied Irish Banks (AIB) in 2010 at the height of the financial crisis, pumping 20.8 billion euros into the lender.

Beer sales in Germany rose for the first time in eight years in 2014 as warm weather and the World Cup football championships increased Germans' thirst for their national drink, the country's brewers said Monday. 

The German beer sector "can look back at a successful year in 2014, when sales exceeded the previous year's figures," the German brewers' federation said in a statement.  

Russia's central bank in 2014 sold $76.1 billion and 5.4 billion euros in attempts to support the ruble, statistics published Monday said, as the currency continued to fall.

Last year, the ruble lost 41 percent of its value against the dollar and 34 percent against the euro as a result of Western sanctions imposed over the crisis in Ukraine and the falling price of oil.

Hungary has restarted gas supplies to neighboring Ukraine, Hungarian pipeline network operator FGSZ Zrt said Sunday, after suspending deliveries in September, prompting criticism from Ukraine's state-owned gas firm Naftogaz.

"I can confirm that gas delivery from Hungary to Ukraine has begun," FGSZ spokeswoman Edina Lakatos told Agence France Presse in an email.

Qatar's international reserves hit an all-time high of $46.5 billion (39 billion euros) in November and are expected to climb higher despite falling oil prices, Qatar National Bank figures revealed.

The latest figure was a jump of almost $7 billion on the level of reserves recorded by the energy-rich Gulf state at the same time in 2013.

Oil prices tumbled again Monday, while most Asian stock markets also retreated after a sell-off in New York at the end of last week that came in reaction to data showing weak U.S. wage growth.

The news on wages, which overshadowed another forecast-beating rise in jobs creation, pushed the dollar down against the euro and yen as it complicates the Federal Reserve's plans to hike interest rates.