Central Bank governor Riyad Salameh has warned that the cabinet’s wage boost decision could lead to a rise in inflation which already reached 4 percent in 2011.

In remarks to LBC TV on Sunday, Salameh said the inflation rate last year was at 4 percent while the debt rose to 54 billion dollars.

Iran's currency, the rial, slipped to a record low Sunday, the day after the United States imposed extra sanctions targeting the Islamic republic's central bank and financial sector.

The state news agency IRNA and an Iranian website tracking the currency said the rial's street value at money changers' slid to around 16,000 to the dollar.

World oil prices could soar to $200 per barrel if Iran's petroleum sector is hit with new Western sanctions, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi told Saturday's edition of news weekly, Aseman.

"There is no doubt that the price of oil will increase drastically and the international markets will have to pay a heavy price," Qasemi was quoted as saying.

Iran is refusing to refuel some European and Arab airlines at its main international airport in a tit-for-tat move over major oil companies denying fuel to Iranian planes abroad, the airport's chief said Saturday.

"Government directives" ordered the ban, Morteza Dehqan, head of Tehran's Imam Khomeini international airport, told the ISNA news agency.

China's central bank governor hinted in comments published Saturday that authorities would loosen their grip on the Asian powerhouse's tightly controlled currency by widening its trading band.

Beijing's trading partners have long criticized its Yuan exchange rate, saying it is kept artificially low, fuelling a flow of cheap exports that have helped trigger massive trade deficits between some countries and China.

The euro remained under pressure Friday, falling to its lowest level against the yen in more than a decade, prodded by a weak Italian debt auction and Spain's deficit warning.

The euro sank to 99.62 yen around 2200 GMT, down from 100.61 yen at the same time Thursday.

The Pentagon awarded U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin Corp. with a $1.96 billion contract Friday to supply the United Arab Emirates with a missile defense system.

Under the contract, Lockheed will deliver two Terminal High Altitude Area Defense or Thaad systems that include radar, interceptors and launchers, according to a Pentagon statement.

Just three years ago, the euro was being praised as the can-do currency that had delivered unprecedented prosperity in Europe.

Now, it's widely derided as a hugely flawed experiment in the wake of a debt crisis that's threatening its very existence — an uncomfortable backdrop as the currency's notes and coins hit their first decade in circulation on Jan. 1.

Oil prices edged higher Thursday in volatile trading in New York, boosted by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and better-than-expected U.S. economic news.

New York's main contract West Texas Intermediate light sweet crude for February delivery, finished at $99.65 a barrel, an increase of 29 cents from Wednesday's close.

In a first, two German manufacturers -- Mercedes-Benz and BMW -- are dueling for the honor of being the top luxury brand sold in the United States.

With the champion of the past 11 years, Toyota's Lexus, hobbled by the fallout from Japan's March 11 earthquake-tsunami-nuclear meltdown disaster, the two Teutonic giants are going at it head-on to snatch the crown, a highly visible symbol of automotive supremacy.