The deputy governor of Iran's central bank says trading in foreign currency outside of banks or licensed money changing operations is forbidden.

The announcement by Ehrahim Darvish on state radio Monday marks the latest step by the government to curb the steep depreciation pressures on the Iranian rial, which has shed roughly 40 percent of its value against the dollar since December 2010.

France's budget minister is optimistic that a downgrade of her country's credit rating won't lead to a rise in the country's borrowing costs.

Valerie Pecresse spoke before the French Treasury is set to sell off short-term bills in an auction Monday, which is seen as a test of the impact of the downgrade.

Oil prices edged above $99 a barrel in Asia on Monday amid concerns that tensions in the Middle East could hurt crude supply but gains were tempered by jitters over Europe's ratings downgrade.

Benchmark crude for February delivery was up 48 cents to $99.16 a barrel at late afternoon Kuala Lumpur time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 40 cents to settle at $98.70 in New York on Friday.

Saudi state oil giant Aramco inked a deal Saturday with China's Sinopec to build an oil refinery in the Red Sea city of Yanbu that will process 400,000 barrels per day, state news agency SPA said.

The project, named Yasref, aims to be operational in 2014, SPA reported.

U.S. President Barack Obama promised Saturday new tax incentives for companies that create jobs in the United States -- and punishment for those who export them overseas.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, the president said that in the next few weeks, he will "put forward new tax proposals that reward companies that choose to do the right thing by bringing jobs home and investing in America - and eliminate tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas."

The possibility of a break-up of the Eurozone was not a key factor in a series of ratings changes and downgrades of bloc members, including top rated France, Standard and Poor's said Saturday.

Asked at a conference call whether a Eurozone break-up had been considered in the decisions announced Friday, S&P Europe sovereign ratings head Moritz Kraemer said it was "not a driving factor in any of our rating positions."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday Europe's new pact to tighten economic integration must be implemented quickly while Europe still faced a "long road" ahead to restore investor confidence.

"We are now called upon to implement quickly the fiscal pact, to implement it with determination... and not try to again soften it," she told reporters in the northern German city of Kiel.

Saudi Arabia has inked an $8.22 billion deal with a Spanish consortium to build a high-speed railway on the Muslim pilgrim route between Mecca and Medina, the state news agency SPA reported Saturday.

Spanish companies beat out French rivals in October for the contract to build the oil-rich kingdom's Haramain High Speed Rail Project (HHR).

The eurozone economy plunged back into crisis on Friday as France and Austria were stripped of their triple-A credit ratings and talks to agree a Greek debt write-down collapsed.

The euro plunged to 16-month lows against the dollar on what proved a grim Friday 13th for EU policy makers, and in particular for France's President Nicolas Sarkozy.

China's forex reserves, the biggest in the world, fell to $3.18 trillion in the last quarter of 2011, the central bank said Friday, the first quarterly fall since 1998 during the Asian financial crisis.

The huge foreign exchange reserves, which reflect the nation's imbalance of international payments, reached a peak of $3.274 trillion in October before beginning a slight decline, the bank said.