Iran will probably sign contracts with automakers Peugeot and Renault, President Hassan Rouhani said Monday as he headed to Europe seeking to capitalise on Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.

"Important contracts will probably be signed on this trip including with Peugeot and Renault," Rouhani told reporters at Mehrabad Airport before leaving Tehran, according to state television's website.

Leftwing Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, at a rally Sunday to mark a year in power, stood by a vow to overhaul the country's pension system despite fierce opposition. 

Pension reform "must go ahead, it's necessary," Tsipras said in a speech before around 4,000 supporters in an Athens stadium.

Oil prices extended their rally in Asia Monday buoyed by hopes of extra stimulus measures in the eurozone and Japan that could help boost demand in the face of a global supply glut.

Prices ended on a buoyant note Friday, with the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for March delivery soaring nine percent to $32.19 a barrel, while Brent soared 10 percent to $32.18.

Iran will sign a contract this week to buy 114 Airbus planes from France, during a visit to Paris by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Tehran's transport minister said Sunday.

Abbas Akhoundi, quoted by Iranian media, said the deal "will be signed between Iran Air and Airbus" when Rouhani is in Paris on Wednesday on the final day of his first official European visit.

Abundant oil and gas deposits have been a blessing for Russia, but they now feel like a curse as low prices propel the country into a deep economic crisis that shows no signs of abating.

The ruble fell to a record dollar low this past week as global crude prices slumped to 12-year lows, highlighting at once Russia's vulnerability to changing oil prices and the fact President Vladimir Putin's government has squandered opportunities to diversify the economy.

As the U.S. presidential race picks up pace, the speeches and debates are full of character attacks, arguments on immigration and worries about national security.

But there is one glaring omission in the battle for the White House: serious talk about the economy.

When an April 2015 earthquake ravaged Nepal, killing 9,000 people and destroying half a million homes, insurers say the money paid out to victims amounted to less than a tenth of that received by Americans hit by winter snowstorms earlier in the year.

The figures reveal a huge potential market yet to be tapped in the developing and emerging world, major insurers said at an annual four-day gathering of billionaires and the political and business elite in Davos, Switzerland, which wrapped up Saturday.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said Saturday that the refugee crisis had pushed Europe to a "make or break" point and endangered the EU's cherished passport-free Schengen area.

"The refugee crisis is a bit of a make or break, from my personal perspective," Lagarde said at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. Asked if it put in peril Schengen, she said: "Yes, I think so."

Brazil hoped to start 2016 making itself pretty for its turn on the world stage when its hosts the summer Olympics. Instead attention has turned to its deepening economic crisis.

The world's seventh largest economy tipped into recession last year -- official figures show that 1.5 million jobs were destroyed.

Standard and Poor's on Friday raised its credit rating for Greek debt by one notch, saying it expected Athens to meet the conditions attached to the latest bailout package.

Greece's sovereign rating went up to B- from CCC+, which removes it from the range of being vulnerable to default.