Oil rose on Monday, extending a rally triggered last week by speculation that OPEC might agree to cut production to reduce a supply glut that has pushed prices to the lowest in over a decade, Reuters reports on February 15.

Crude-oil prices slid back below $30 a barrel in early Asia trade Tuesday after Saudi Arabia reiterated it wouldn’t cut investments despite current low prices, stoking fears the market would remain saturated for much longer.

The price of Brent crude oil falls below $28 a barrel for the first time since December 1, 2003.

The GBP/USD pair fell a bit during the course of the session on Friday, February 5, but did get back some of the losses by the time we closed, FX Empire reports.

"The collapse of the Russian ruble against the US dollar continued for a second day on Thursday. The currency fell below 85 rubles, setting a new all-time low against the greenback", informs RT.

Russia has failed to adapt to economic and technological change and has fallen into the ranks of "downshifter" countries that will catastrophically lag behind their more advanced rivals, the chief executive officer of Russia's top lender Sberbank German Gref said on January 15 at the Gaidar Forum in Moscow.

Recession in the Russian economy will continue, the Bank of Russia said on Wednesday, February 3. "Industrial production statistics for December 2015 shows that production decline continues on the whole across main kinds of economic activity. This evidences concerns that the decline in the Russian economy will last longer than assumed earlier. The primary reason is the decline in oil prices in the coming months," the regulator said.

The GBP/USD pair initially fell during the day on Thursday, January 21, but found enough support near the 1.4050 level to turn things back around and form a significant looking hammer.

China has become the 67^th member of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Following the completion of all the formalities, the announcement was made after a meeting  between the EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing on 15 January.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on credit and monetary policy on January 29. Putin reminded: «We are set next week to discuss privatisation and our plans in this area, including for this year. There is a view that some financial institutions should also be part of this privatisation process. The Central Bank is the main shareholder, the key shareholder, in our country’s biggest bank – Sberbank».

Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the plenary session of the National Entrepreneurs’ Forum Small Business – National Idea? on January 20.The forum examined issues such as support for small and medium-sized enterprises and measures to encourage business activity.

Vladimir Putin had a working meeting with General Director of Aeroflot Russian Airlines Vitaly Savelyev to discuss the company’s performance in 2015 and the situation on the air service market.