Japan's central bank said Wednesday it was investigating a high-profile media report that revealed it was mulling a negative interest rate policy just before it made the formal announcement.

The country's leading Nikkei business daily published its story online Friday, several minutes before the central bank shocked markets with the surprise stimulus after a closed-door meeting. 

Ukraine's Lithuanian-born Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius abruptly submitted his resignation Wednesday citing his inability to push through vital restructuring measures essential to getting growth in the cash-strapped country on track.

The shock decision layed bare the sharp divisions with pro-Western President Petro Poroshenko's government and the difficulties the ex-Soviet nation faces in coming through with the changes needed to fulfil its ambition of joining the EU.

The oil price slump cast a cloud over Asian markets again Wednesday after falling back below $30 a barrel, hammering energy firms once again and sending stocks deeper into the red.

With the euphoria of Friday's Bank of Japan stimulus but a distant memory, Tokyo led the regional losses followed by Hong Kong, where insurance giant AIA lost almost a tenth of its value at one point on fears China would tighten insurance rules.

Alphabet, the parent firm for Google, became the world's most valuable company Tuesday as a jump in its share price helped it vault past tech rival Apple.

In opening trade following a robust earnings report, Alphabet shares rose 2.9 percent to lift its market capitalization to $543 billion while Apple's value declined to $530 billion with a modest dip in trading.

Nigeria is seeking loans from the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and other lenders to help cover this year's massive budget deficit, the government and bank officials said.

The deficit is projected at 2.2 trillion naira ($11 billion, 10 billion euros) out of a total budget of 6.08 trillion naira, they said late Monday, confirming projections first given in President Muhammadu Buhari's December budget announcement.

Saudi Arabia's fiscal reserves dropped to a four-year low last year as the government sought to finance a budget deficit caused by plunging oil revenues, a report said Tuesday.

The reserves of the world's largest crude exporter dropped to $611.9 billion at the end of 2015, the lowest level since 2011, down from $732 billion a year before, the Saudi Jadwa Investment said in an economic report.

German unemployment fell to a new historic low in January as the recovery in Europe's biggest economy remains on track, data showed on Tuesday. 

Unemployment stands at the lowest level since west and east Germany reunited in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall the previous year, the Federal Labor Office said in a statement.

India's central bank kept interest rates on hold Tuesday, citing the importance of  controlling inflation and noting a slowing growth momentum in Asia's third-largest economy.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the benchmark repo rate, the level at which it lends to commercial banks, would remain at 6.75 percent as analysts had expected.

Rodrigo Rato, a former chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is to stand trial for misusing funds when he was head of a bailed-out Spanish bank, a court in Madrid said Monday.

One time Spanish finance minister Rato is one of 66 accused in a scandal that allegedly saw executives and board members at Caja Madrid and Bankia -- the group whose near-collapse sparked an EU bailout of Spain's financial sector -- spend around 12 million euros ($13 million) on themselves between 2003 and 2012, with some media reports putting the total figure above 15 million euros.

Shares in Finnish telecom giant Nokia plummeted on Monday after the group announced it had settled a patent dispute with South Korea's Samsung whose terms disappointed investors.

Nokia's shares fell by more than 11 percent on the Helsinki stock market following the announcement of the settlement.