Argentina's central bank governor resigned Wednesday, the president's office said, as the country grapples with an economic slowdown, a debt default and a damaging row with the United States.

Juan Carlos Fabrega's decision to quit after less than a year in the post comes a day after an emotional President Cristina Kirchner alleged in a televised address that domestic and U.S. interests were pushing to devalue the peso, topple her center-left government -- and even kill her.

Persistent and dangerously low eurozone inflation will keep the heat on the European Central Bank headed by Mario Draghi to inject more stimulus at its monthly policy meeting on Thursday, analysts said.

But despite this pressure, and in view of a surprise rate cut last month, the ECB is not expected to announce any new policy moves.

Central European heavyweight Poland needs a stronger eurozone and stability for its own economy to join the single European currency, the country's prime minister-designate said on Wednesday.

"A stronger eurozone and stable Polish economy are the pre-conditions for entry into the eurozone," Ewa Kopacz told parliament ahead of a confidence vote that her new cabinet is expected to win later in the day.

France's finance minister on Wednesday forecast that the country's budget deficit would scrape below the European Union ceiling by 2017, as he unveiled his annual budget.

Michel Sapin told reporters that the deficit would be 2.8 percent of gross domestic output in 2017, just below the EU's three-percent ceiling.

China's former richest man Wang Jianlin once bet Alibaba founder Jack Ma 100 million yuan ($16.3 million) that online purchases in the country would not eclipse bricks-and-mortar buys in the next decade.

But while Wang says he laid the wager "for fun" two years ago, the billionaires' business interests are increasingly converging as Chinese consumers' spending habits undergo a seismic shift -- and much larger sums are at stake.

Royal Bank of Scotland will book lower bad debt charges than expected this year, helped by Ireland's improving economy, the state-rescued lender announced on Tuesday.

RBS shares jumped 3.76 percent to 375 pence at the start of trading.

France's public debt topped the symbolic level of 2.0 trillion for the first time, in the second quarter of the year, the national statistics agency INSEE said Tuesday.

The total national debt amounted to 2.023 trillion euros ($2.57 trillion), INSEE said, which represents 95.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). European Union rules limit debt to 60 percent of GDP.

Oil prices turned higher in Asian trade Tuesday on expectations of upbeat economic data from the United States, the world's biggest economy, analysts said.

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for November delivery was up nine cents to $94.66 a barrel in afternoon trade and Brent crude added seven cents to $97.27.

Japan's factory output saw a surprise drop and household spending kept falling in August, data showed Tuesday, fanning fears about the impact of April's sales tax rise on the economy.

The figures will add to worries that the country's tentative recovery has been knocked off kilter by the increased levy and strengthen the hand of those arguing against another hike next year.

China will begin direct trading between its yuan currency and the euro starting on Tuesday, the national foreign exchange market's operator said, as Beijing seeks to broaden the unit's global usage.

The China Foreign Exchange Trade System already offers a platform for yuan-euro transactions but direct trading means the U.S. dollar will not be used as an intermediary currency to calculate rates, according to a statement released Monday.