CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Japan is scheduled to release a raft of data on Friday, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are January figures for inflation, unemployment and household spending, as well as February numbers for vehicle sales and Q4 data for capital spending.
Inflation is expected to contract 0.2 percent on year after easing 0.1 percent in December. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 4.2 percent, while household spending is tipped to rise 0.4 percent on year after falling 0.7 percent in the previous month. Vehicle sales were down an annual 12.9 percent in January, while capex is forecast to drop 7.2 percent after collecting 2.2 percent in the previous three months.
Australia will see the February results of the RBA's commodity index and the manufacturing index from AiG. In January, the commodity index saw a score of 90.3, while the manufacturing index came in at 40.2.
China will release February figures for its official manufacturing PMI and the HSBC flash manufacturing PMI. The official index is expected to show a score of 50.5, up from 50.4 in January. The HSBC index saw a score of 52.3 in the previous month.
Indonesia will announce January figures for imports, exports and trade balance, plus February inflation data. Imports were at $15.56 billion in December and exports came in at $15.41 billion for a deficit of $0.15 billion. Inflation is expected to add 0.1 percent on month and 4.6 percent on year after rising 1.03 percent on month and 4.57 percent on year in January. Core CPI was up 0.46 percent on month and 5.91 percent on year in January.
Thailand will provide February numbers for consumer and producer prices. CPI is expected to add 0.3 percent on month and 3.3 percent on year after rising 0.16 percent on month and 3.4 percent on year in January. Core CPI is called higher by 0.2 percent on month and 1.7 percent on year after adding 0.08 percent on month and 1.6 percent on year in the previous month. PPI was up 0.2 percent on month and 0.6 percent on year a month earlier.
Finally, markets in South Korea are closed for Independence Declaration Day, and will re-open on Monday.
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