EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

Eurozone finance ministers agreed at a meeting in Copenhagen on Friday to increase the bailout lending limit to 700 billion euros ($930 billion), a move aimed at reassuring financial markets wary of a Eurozone default and dampening the crippling debt crisis of the past few years.

Finance ministers from the 17-member currency area agreed to combine, for one year, a pair of rescue funds meant to help avert a default by Spain, Italy or Portugal, or a repeat by Greece, which warned that a third bailout might be necessary.

Euro zone nations are falling far behind the United States and Canada as a fragile recovery takes root in advanced economies, the OECD said on Thursday, advising central banks to keep easy money flowing so the rebound does not prove short-lived.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, previously reluctant to expand the size of euro zone bailout funds, agreed to support a €200 billion ($265 billion) increase of the firewall on Monday.

Hopes that the European Central Bank’s operations would help to facilitate a meaningful pick-up in the euro-zone economy were dealt a blow by the release of March’s flash Purchase managers Index surveys according to Capital Economics.

The central bank president told Germany's Bild Zeitung that the ECB will act swiftly to counteract any worsening of inflation. The situation is stabilizing, Draghi said of the euro zone crisis.

The worst of the euro zone crisis is over and the European Central Bank will act if inflation risks grow, ECB President Mario Draghi said in a German newspaper interview released on Thursday, seeking to ease angst in Germany about price rises.

Asian shares gave back earlier gains Thursday after data showed China's factory activity shrank for a fifth successive month, underscoring concerns about a growth slowdown in the world's second largest economy.

Asian shares inched up Thursday but remained in ranges as investors waited for manufacturing data from China and the euro zone due during this session for more clues about the state of their economies.

Developments in the two weeks since the credit event confirmed that the world's first test of using credit default swaps as protection involving sovereign debt turned out fairly well. But broader concerns abound, such as the fragile Greek economy and what could be in store for fellow euro zone members Spain and Portugal.

The latest liquidity operations by European Central Bank (ECB) appear to have averted, at least for the time being, a threatening catastrophe in the euro-zone banking sector. But it would be wrong to think that they have solved the region’s deeper fiscal and economic problems, or secured the future of the single currency itself according to Capital Economics.

The European Commission is widening its regulatory sweep to include "shadow" banking, heralding new controls over the sprawling and largely unchartered 46 trillion euro ($61 trillion) sector blamed for helping trigger the financial crisis.

European Central Bank data out Monday showed euro zone countries exporting more goods and services than they imported in January. In a further encouraging sign, a greater number of countries contributed to the increased exports.

Greece's nearly $270 billion debt restructuring was deemed a default last week, bringing relief to creditors that had hedged their bets by buying credit default swaps. But the default declaration could send a wave of unintended consequences throughout Europe, further weakening some already-fragile economies.

Expectations that the euro zone will fall into recession this year or, at best, post anemic growth, are growing.

Finance ministers from euro zone nations are meeting in Brussels on Monday to discuss their likely final approval of a second package of rescue loans for Greece.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association decided Friday that Greece’s debt swap was a restructuring credit event. Its decision triggers payouts on almost $3.2 billion of credit default swaps -- insurance-like contracts aimed at protecting creditors from loss.

Tokyo stocks jumped to a seven-month high Friday as Asian shares rose on signs Greece is a step nearer to averting a default, although momentum may be checked by caution ahead of U.S. data that is expected to confirm a labor market recovery.

Central bankers around the world took their foot off the loose monetary policy throttle Thursday and kept benchmark interest rates steady on inflation concerns and the lack of new threats to gross domestic product growth.

Wall Street opened higher on Thursday as strong uptake by investors in Greece's debt swap fed optimism a deal could be completed by a deadline later in the day, staving off a messy default.

Two of Europe's main central banks announced Thursday they would be keeping their benchmark interbank lending rates unchanged, in an expected move that analysts see as an acknowledgement of creeping inflation and policy exhaustion.