As had widely been expected, Japan's central bank made no change in its key policy interest rate and the size of asset-purchase program.

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) on Thursday announced its unanimous decision to maintain its key policy interest rate in a range of 0-0.1 per cent, and hold off any expansion in its asset purchases and lending scheme.

Singapore's Labour chief Lim Swee, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, on Wednesday turned down demands for introducing a minimum wage system in the country.

Mr. Lim stressed that that Singapore's existing model of Workfare Income Supplement, Workfare Training Support and a progressive wage system, was better than a minimum wage system.

Just two euro zone countries, viz. Ireland and Germany, enjoyed a growth in their manufacturing activity in February this year, the newly released purchasing managers' reports for the last month revealed.

Singapore's economy grew at a better-than-expected rate of 1.5 per cent in the October-December quarter year-on-year, as the manufacturing sector shrank less, and construction and services grew a little more than expected.

The growth in the city-state's gross domestic product (GDP) outshined both the consensus projection of 1.2 per cent and the advance estimate of 1.1 per cent.

Singapore needs to shift its thinking on both economy and society, the city-state's Deputy Prime Minister & Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said.

The economy of Singapore grew more than expected at 1.5 per cent in the three months ended December 31, but the government's outlook for the economy is still cautious.

The economy had been projected to grow nearly 1.1 per cent in the October to December quarter year-on-year.

Singaporean economy suffered a quarter-on-quarter fall of 0.9 per cent in retail sales in December 2012, obviously as consumers cut back on spending.

Fresh figures released by the Singapore Department of Statistics also showed that the country's retail sales slipped 1.5 per cent year-on-year.