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Tuesday, Japan’s Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said the government may need to intervene in the foreign exchange market if something unusual happens, reversing the comments made yesterday. “If the currency market moves abnormally, we may take necessary steps in the national interest,” Fujii said in Tokyo, in an effort to bring down the impact of his earlier comments, which pushed yen to an eight-month high on Monday.

The number of loan approvals for house purchase in the UK stood at 52,317 in August, slightly down from a revised 52,404 approved in July, data released by the Bank of England showed Tuesday. Economists had forecast 51,500 approvals.

Tuesday, Statistics Lithuania said the consumer confidence index improved to minus 40 in September from minus 47 in the previous month. This marks the highest level since October 2008. A year earlier, the index stood at minus 26.

Italian manufacturing confidence indicator fell to 74 in September from revised 74.4 in August, economic think tank ISAE said Tuesday. Economists had forecast an increase to 76.

Retail sales in Spain dropped 4% year-on-year in August, slower than the 4.6% decline in the previous month, the National Statistics Institute said Tuesday.

Private consumption in Switzerland is likely to weaken in the coming months, the UBS consumption indicator suggested Tuesday.

House prices in Australia may rise too fast hurting low income households’ ability to buy homes, said Anthony Richards, Head of Economic Analysis Department at the Reserve Bank of Australia.

New Zealand’s total reserve assets increased to NZ$19.20 billion in August from NZ$17.69 billion in the previous month, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand said Tuesday.

Visitor arrivals into Singapore dropped 0.7% year-on-year in August to 844,000, Singapore Tourism Board said. This was the smallest annual decline recorded this year.

South Korea saw a current account surplus of $2.04 billion in August, the Bank of Korea said in a preliminary report on Tuesday - down from $4.36 billion in July, due to a narrower goods account surplus. This was the smallest current account surplus recorded in seven months.