Egypt may soon receive the first tranche of a crucial $12 billion aid package, the head of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde said Saturday.

Officials in Cairo reached an agreement in principle with the IMF in August for the aid package but it was conditioned on a series of reforms and remains subject to approval by the Fund's executive board.

More than one in five Japanese companies have employees who work such long hours they are at serious risk of death, according to a new government survey into the country's notoriously strenuous working culture.

As Egypt braces for austerity reforms, the military has expanded its economic role, at times helping President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi assuage the impact of rising prices on the country's poor.

Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Friday that repeated U.S. fines on European banks were eroding the stability of the European finance system.

With Deutsche Bank now trying to negotiate down a threatened $14 billion fine from the U.S. Department of Justice, Dijsselbloem said there is a limit to what should be done in punishing weakened banks for past misdeeds.

Banks were reopening Friday in Brazil after a 31-day strike ended with employees getting some if not all of the pay rise demanded.

About half of bank branches around Brazil had shuttered for the longest strike in the sector's history. Employees had demanded a 15 percent pay increase, partly to offset Brazil's inflation, currently at 8.5 percent.

The G20 warned Friday of the risks to the global economy of populist politicians playing up anti-globalization sentiments to voters.

With the global economy already dragging, finance ministers of the group of leading economies said such populism could further hurt growth.

Qatar Airways announced a large airplane order with Boeing Friday that includes up to $6.9 billion in single-aisle planes following delays in a rival Airbus offering.

Under the agreement, Qatar will buy 30 new-generation Boeing 787s and 10 Boeing 777s, both widebody aircraft, for $11.7 billion, the companies announced. 

Europe's leaders have vowed no compromise on the terms of their divorce with Britain as a free-falling pound on Friday dramatically underscored the perils ahead for Prime Minister Theresa May's government.

When the British pound fell off a cliff on Friday morning, it soon became clear what may have been responsible -- the computers.

The Bank of England is "looking into" what caused the pound to slump more than six percent against the dollar in less than ten minutes Friday, a spokesman told AFP.

"We are looking into what happened,"  he said after sterling suffered a "flash crash" in Asia trading hours -- hitting a new 31-year low point at $1.1841. The pound slumped also to a 6.5-year trough against the euro, at 94.15 pence.