WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Life is most expensive for people living in Hawaii, New York and Washington, D.C., and cheapest for those in South Dakota, North Dakota and Mississippi, according to U.S. government data released on Wednesday. The Commerce Department posted the statistics as a prototype - it may change the methodology it used in the future - and the data only goes to 2011.

India's industrial output grew by a worse-than-expected two percent in April, official data showed on Wednesday, suggesting that the recovery of Asia's third-largest economy remains elusive. The two percent year-on-year output growth of India's factories, mines and utilities undershot market expectations of a 2.4 percent rise and was down from an upwardly revised 3.4 percent jump the previous month.

The Bank of Japan said Tuesday the economy was "picking up" and held off ramping up April's huge stimulus scheme, but warned of possible headwinds caused by uncertainty in Europe and the United States. The announcement came a day after fresh data showed the world's third-largest economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter, but it sent the yen rallying and stocks tumbling as investors were left disappointed. "Japan's economy has been picking up," the bank said, while capital spending by the nation's firms "appears to have stopped weakening".

TOKYO - Japan's central bank ended a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday with an upbeat assessment for the world's No. 3 economy and a pledge to persist with its aggressive monetary easing policies aimed at ending years of growth-sapping deflation. The Bank of Japan refrained, however, from taking further action to curb unusual volatility in the market for Japanese government bonds that has raised concern over the potential impact of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic strategies on the country's rising public debt.