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WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Spain's reforms under its financial sector support program are close to being complete and the clean-up of its weakest banks is well advanced. BERLINP - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, under fire at home over corruption allegations, has won praise from German Chancellor Angela Merkel over his handling of Spain's recession-mired economy. ATHENS - Greece narrowed its public deficit to 6.6 per cent of output in 2012, meeting targets pledged to EU-IMF creditors, the finance ministry says. WASHINGTON - Tunisia is nearing agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $US1.78 billion ($A1.72 billion) standby loan to protect the economy from external shocks, the IMF says. CAPE TOWN - South Africa has raised farm workers' basic salary by more than 50 per cent after violent strikes in the fruit-growing Cape region in the south, the labour minister has announced. LONDON - Britain's banks will be broken up if they fail to ring-fence retail operations from their investment divisions to avoid any future state bailouts of lenders, finance minister George Osborne has warned. LONDON - Bonuses at part-nationalised Lloyds will be the lowest of any British bank this year, its chairman has told MPs.

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