By abandoning the tight rein it held for decades on the oil market, OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia launched a battle for control that sent crude prices plummeting.

It has been a painful fight, experts say, but with its vast resources the Gulf kingdom is showing no signs of giving up.

The German central bank, or Bundesbank, said Wednesday that it brought home last year more of its gold reserves from overseas storage.

"The Bundesbank successfully continued its transfers of gold last year," the central bank said in a statement.

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday approved the disbursement of 126.3 million euros ($137.4 million) to Cyprus after the eurozone member passed its ninth and penultimate review of its bailout programme.

"Completion of the review would make about 126.3 million euros available to disbursement, which brings total disbursements under the program to about one billion euros," said the IMF.

The dollar slipped against the yen and most emerging currencies Wednesday as markets focus on the Federal Reserve's first meeting of the year.

The U.S. central bank is not expected to announce any change in monetary policy after the meeting ends later Wednesday, following its historic interest rate raise in December.

The World Bank warned Tuesday that slowing emerging-market economies were hampering an oil recovery, and prices could sink further in a blow to a "fragile" global economy.

Crude oil in 2016 is projected to come in at $37 a barrel, down from its October estimate of $51, the World Bank said in a new quarterly report.

The United States is expanding authorized  exports to Cuba in the latest incremental steps to ease a Cold War-era trade ban on the communist-ruled island, the U.S. Treasury said Tuesday.

The rule changes, which go into effect Wednesday, will allow more U.S. exports related to disaster preparedness, education, agricultural production, food processing, public transportation and artistic endeavors.

Global crude prices should recover near the end of this year, the president of the world's biggest oil exporter, Saudi Aramco, said on Tuesday.

"Our prediction is that we will see some adjustment but it will happen toward the end of this year," Amin al-Nasser, president and chief executive officer of the state-owned company, told a business forum in the Saudi capital.

The Kuwaiti and Iraqi oil ministers said Tuesday that OPEC will not cut production unless producers outside the cartel do the same, despite the plunge in crude prices.

"OPEC cannot cut its production unless there is a similar reduction by producers outside OPEC," Kuwait's acting oil minister, Anas al-Saleh, told reporters on the sidelines of an oil conference.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will Tuesday attend an Iran-Italy business forum before meeting Pope Francis, as the Islamic Republic rebuilds ties with the West and seals multi-billion dollar deals as sanctions against it are lifted.

Italian officials said contracts signed in Rome late Monday would be worth up to 17 billion euros ($18.4 billion), topped by a five-billion-euro deal for pipeline company Saipem, whose shares surged 18.5 percent in Milan on Monday.

Crude fell back below $30 a barrel in Asia Tuesday as worries about the global supply glut returned to the fore, following a two-day rebound.

After plunging to 12-year lows, prices soared late last week on hopes that plans for further economic stimulus measures in the eurozone and Japan would perk up demand.