The Ukrainian parliament on Friday adopted a budget for 2016 with a deficit of 3 percent of GDP, crucial for unlocking much needed aid from the IMF and Western countries.

The budget was passed after an acrimonious all-night debate and was finally approved by 263 lawmakers, about 40 more than the minimum required number.

A luxury apartment in Hong Kong sold for a record HK$594.7 million ($76.7 million), days before Christmas, making it the most expensive flat in the city and possibly in Asia, reports said Friday.

An unidentified buyer paid more than HK$103,700 per-square-foot for the 5,732 square-foot (532 square-metre) unit at the luxury 39 Conduit Road apartment tower in the southern Chinese city's upmarket Mid-Levels residential area, The Apple Daily and The Standard reported.

It may have made its name as the ultimate backpacker destination but Thailand hopes to attract a more well-heeled kind of traveler in the future, its tourism minister said Friday, as the kingdom announced record arrivals for 2015.

The vital tourism industry remains one of the few economic brightspots following a year in which the junta-led government has struggled to kickstart the kingdom's stumbling economy.

A firm owned by a Saudi prince said Thursday it had led a group that invested around $248 million (226 million euros) in U.S. ridesharing service company Lyft.

Kingdom Holding Co, which is 95 percent-owned by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, invested $104.9 million in the San Francisco-based startup, it said in a statement.

Oil prices extended their recent rally in Asia on Thursday as a drop in U.S. crude supplies cheered global financial markets ahead of the long Christmas weekend.

The main global contracts for the commodity surged more than 3.5 percent on Wednesday after the U.S. Department of Energy reported inventories unexpectedly fell in the week ending December 18 while imports sank about 13 percent week on week.

Saudi King Salman on Wednesday said he has ordered economic reforms to diversify sources of income and reduce high dependence on oil following a sharp drop in crude prices.

"Our vision for economic reform is to increase the efficiency of public spending, utilize economic resources and boost returns from state investment," he said in an address to the Shura Council.

The EU's top court ruled Wednesday that Scotland's minimum price system for alcohol, designed to stop people "drinking themselves to death," was contrary to EU law.

The European Court of Justice said the measure violated the bloc's single market rules while its objective of reducing alcohol intake would be better achieved by tax measures.

Russia's Central Bank on Wednesday issued a banknote depicting famous landmarks of Crimea, commemorating last year's annexation of the peninsula that was slammed by the West and led to sanctions against Moscow.

The banknote with the denomination of 100 rubles (about $1.40. 1.29 euros) is "dedicated to Crimea and Sevastopol becoming a part of the Russian Federation," the Central Bank said in a statement. 

The World Bank approved a $500 million loan Wednesday to help the Philippines deal with natural disasters.

It can access the new credit line following "a state of calamity" declared by the president, the World Bank said in a statement.

Britain's economy grew slower than expected in the third quarter, revised official data showed on Wednesday.

Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 0.4 percent in the July-September period, down from previous estimates of 0.5-percent growth, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.