Following a solid start to the year, signs emerged Wednesday that the 19-country eurozone economy is losing some traction.

While a closely-watched survey indicated that economic activity grew at a steady pace in April, a separate report pointed to a sharp drop in retail sales in March.

Greece made a 200 million euro ($225 million) interest payment to the International Monetary Fund Wednesday, the Greek finance ministry said, the first of two reimbursements Athens must honour by mid-May.

The smaller of the two scheduled payments totaling nearly one billion euros came despite the failure thus far by cash-strapped Greece and its European Union-IMF creditors to reach a deal to unblock 7.2 billion in bailout funds to Athens.

Iran is expected to outline big oil and gas projects at a major industry event Wednesday ahead of a possible nuclear deal that could allow global energy giants to return.

The plans, which have been trailed in the Iranian media, will likely dominate Iran's 20th Oil, Gas, Refining and Petrochemical Fair, a four-day event in Tehran, which opens at 0930 GMT.

New York, a city of exorbitant rents with more and more single residents, is about to get a brand new type of apartment: micro-units, for decades prohibited under zoning regulations.

A first building of 55 prefabricated studios spanning nine stories is due to welcome its first tenants in Manhattan in the fall.

The EU on Tuesday sharply slashed its growth outlook for Greece this year due to its ongoing battle with its international creditors, dampening an otherwise improved outlook for the eurozone.

The Greek economy slumped severely in the first three months of the year, the European Commission said in its Spring forecasts, cutting its overall 2015 growth outlook for Greece to 0.5 percent, a huge reduction from its earlier prediction of 2.5 percent.

Brazil will sell off 269 blocks of oil this year to international operators, albeit none in potentially highly lucrative so-called pre-salt areas lying deep in the Atlantic, a government minister said Monday.

Brazil is setting great store by the eventual exploitation of tens of billions of barrels' worth of pre-salt stocks and whose selloff, originally slated for next year, is now expected to come in about 2017.

Spain has recovered only five percent of 51.3 billion euros ($57.2 billion) of state aid given to the country's banking sector since 2009 to prevent its collapse, the Bank of Spain said on Monday.

A total of 53.55 billion euros were provided to Spain's banking sector via a restructuring fund in the aftermath of the financial crisis, including 2.25 billion euros of contributions from the private sector.

Gulf oil exporters must reduce spending, including subsidies, and diversify their economies to cope with lower revenues caused by the sharp drop in crude prices, the International Monetary Fund said.

The wealthy monarchies, however, should "not react in a knee-jerk way to lower oil prices", the IMF Middle East and Central Asia chief Masood Ahmed told Agence France Presse in an interview Monday.

Australia's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low of 2.0 percent on Tuesday in a bid to reinvigorate the struggling economy as a long, China-fuelled mining boom fizzles out.

"At today's meeting, the board judged that the inflation outlook provided the opportunity for monetary policy to be eased further, so as to reinforce recent encouraging trends in household demand," Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens said in a statement.

Dubai attracted more than 13 million visitors last year, official figures released on Monday showed, as the cash-flush emirate looks to reap the rewards of its growing tourism sector. 

A total of 13.2 million foreigners headed to Dubai in 2014, an increase of 8.2 percent compared with the previous year, its tourism department said.