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Mauritius trade deficit for May narrowed from the same month a year ago, data released by the Central Statistical Office showed on Tuesday.

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Singapore's annual inflation accelerated as expected in June, mainly due to a pick up in petrol pump prices. But, the central bank reduced its inflation estimate for this year citing sharper-than-expected decline in car prices. According to a combined statement from the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Monetary Authority of Singapore released on Tuesday, inflation rose to 1.8 percent.

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Eurozone consumer confidence in July improved to its highest level since mid-2011, preliminary data released by the European Commission showed on Tuesday.

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Spanish recession slowed in the second quarter of 2013, thanks to the improvement in the external sector. Gross domestic product declined 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter in the three months to June, slower than a 0.5 percent fall seen in the first quarter, preliminary estimates from the Bank of Spain showed on Tuesday.

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China's factory activity fell to the weakest level in eleven months in July amid a continued slide in new orders and faster destocking, preliminary results of a survey by Markit Economics and HSBC revealed Wednesday. The purchasing managers' index, an indicator of the country's factory sector performance, fell to 47.7 in July from 48.2 in June. An index reading below 50 suggests deterioration.

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Consumer prices in Australia added 0.4 percent in the second quarter of 2013 compared to the previous three months, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

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Credit standards for loans to euro area consumers eased for the first time in nearly six years in the second quarter of 2013, the European Central Bank said in its latest quarterly Bank Lending Survey, released Wednesday. Credit standards for consumers have fallen for the first time since end-2007 to a net easing of 2 percent in the second quarter from a net tightening of 7 percent.

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Credit standards for loans to euro area consumers eased for the first time in nearly six years in the second quarter of 2013, the European Central Bank said in its latest quarterly Bank Lending Survey, released Wednesday.

Credit standards for consumers have fallen for the first time since end-2007 to a net easing of 2 percent in the second quarter from a net tightening of 7 percent from the first quarter, the ECB said in the report. At the same time, the net percentage of banks reporting a further tightening of credit standards on loans to non-financial corporations (NFCs) stood unchanged at 7 percent. In the case of housing loans, the degree of net tightening eased to 7 percent from 14 percent.

The ECB said that the development of credit standards for both NFCs and households reflected "somewhat reduced contributions not only from banks' risk perceptions, but also from their cost of funds and balance sheet constraints."

Borrowers' risk and macroeconomic uncertainty remained the main factors that curbed lending policies, the bank said.

According to the survey, euro area banks anticipate a decline in the pace of net tightening of credit standards on loans to NFCs and loans for house purchase in the third quarter. Meanwhile, they expect conditions on consumer credit to remain broadly unchanged.

Demand for loans declined in the second quarter but to a lesser extent compared with the previous quarter, the survey found. Fewer banks reported a decline in loan demand from NFCs in the second quarter than in the first quarter.

ECB said the weakness of demand was driven mainly by a substantial negative impact of fixed investment on the financing needs of firms, while inventories and working capital contributed positively to the loan demand in the same quarter.

The proportion of banks indicating a net decline of demand for home loans fell substantially in the second quarter. Also,there was only a smaller net decline of demand in the second quarter in the case of consumer credit.

Looking forward to the third quarter, banks expect the net decline in demand for loans across all loan categories to continue, the survey showed.

In the second quarter, banks reported a further improvement across all funding categories, albeit to a lesser extent than in the previous survey. In the third quarter, euro area banks expect a marginal deterioration in funding conditions for most market segments, the survey report noted.

The survey was conducted between June 19 and July 4 in which 132 banks participated.

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Iceland's inflation accelerated in July, after holding steady in previous two months, data released by Statistics Iceland showed on Wednesday.

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New home sales in the U.S. rose by much more than anticipated in the month of June, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, although the report also showed downward revisions to the data for the past few months. The report said new home sales surged up by 8.3 percent to an annual rate of 497,000 in June from the revised May rate of 459,000.

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New home sales in the U.S. rose by much more than anticipated in the month of June, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, although the report also showed downward revisions to the data for the past few months.

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