CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Japan will on Wednesday release December numbers for core machine orders, setting the pace for a busy day in Asia-Pacific economic activity.
Core machine orders are expected to fall 4.0 percent on month and rise 17.4 percent on year after climbing 9.3 percent on month and 16.6 percent on year in November.
Japan also will provide December figures for tertiary industry and January data for money stock and machine tool orders.
The tertiary industry index is expected to ease 0.3 percent on month after rising 0.6 percent in November. The M2 money stock is tipped to hold steady at 4.2 percent higher on year, while M3 is called unchanged at 3.4 percent. Machine tool orders surged 28.1 percent on year in the previous month.
Australia will see February results for the Westpac consumer confidence index, plus December numbers for credit card purchases. In January, the Westpac index fell 1.7 percent to a score of 103.3. Credit card purchases were worth A$22.4 billion in November.
South Korea will release unemployment data for January, with forecasts suggesting that the rate will hold steady at 3.0 percent.
Malaysia will provide Q4 data for GDP and current account. In the third quarter, GDP was up 5.0 percent on year, while the current account surplus was 9.84 billion ringgit.
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