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Japan is on Wednesday scheduled to release April figures for retail sales, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

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The contraction in Japan's retail sales slowed in April after demand for automobiles recovered from a seven-month bout of decline, the latest figures from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed Wednesday. Sales fell 0.1 percent year-on-year in April. Economists had forecast a contraction of 0.4 percent following the 0.3 percent drop in March.

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Global financial community should recognize capital controls as an important tool to curb international transmission of crises, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda suggested during a conference on Wednesday. "The global financial community must, in its efforts to rebuild the global financial system, come to terms with two issues: capital controls and financial regulation and supervision."

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The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on Wednesday trimmed its 2013 growth estimate for the world economy, citing further deterioration in the euro area. However, the organization expects global growth to accelerate next year helped by the ongoing support from accommodative monetary polices.

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The number of jobless persons in Germany increased significantly more than expected in May as extreme weather conditions and the ongoing crisis in the euro area weakened economic activity, but the unemployment rate stayed close to the historically low levels, the latest data showed Wednesday.

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South Korea will on Thursday provide April figures for industrial production, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

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South Korea's industrial production gained 0.8 percent in April compared to the previous month, Statistics Korea said on Thursday - following three straight months of contraction.

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Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Graeme Wheeler on Thursday hinted at further foreign exchange intervention to stem excess gains in New Zealand dollar and suggested that the Official Cash Rate can be reduced if inflation risk looks significantly low. "In recent months we have undertaken foreign exchange transactions to try and dampen some of the spikes in the exchange rate," Wheeler said.

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Eurozone economic sentiment picked up moderately in May, driven by improved confidence in all business sectors except for construction, survey results published by the European Commission showed Thursday. The economic sentiment index climbed to 89.4 in May, in line with expectations, from 88.6 in April.

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Swiss economic growth accelerated unexpectedly in the first quarter of 2013 as robust consumer spending and construction investment offset the negative impacts from the strong franc and continued weakness in the euro area economy. Gross domestic product increased 0.6 percent quarter-on-quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis in the first three months.

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