CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Reserve Bank of Australia will on Tuesday wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a busy day in Asia-Pacific economic activity.
The RBA is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 2.00 percent.
Australia also will also see January numbers for building approvals and Q4 data for current account.
Building approvals are expected to fall 3 percent on month and 8.5 percent on year after rising 9.2 percent on month and falling 2.5 percent on year in December. The current account deficit is pegged at A$20.0 billion after showing a A$18.1 billion shortfall in the third quarter.
Australia will see February numbers for its commodity price index; in January, the index tumbled 25.8 percent to a score of 71.7.
Japan will release January numbers for unemployment and household spending, as well as Q4 data for capex and company profits.
The jobless rate is expected to hold steady at 3.3 percent, while spending is expected to fall 2.7 percent on year after shedding 4.4 percent in December. Capex is called higher by 10 percent after rising 11.2 percent in Q3.
Japan also will see February results from the manufacturing PMI from Nikkei; in January, the score was 50.2. Taiwan (50.6), Indonesia (48.9) and Malaysia (48.6) also will see results of the Nikkei manufacturing survey.
China will release its official manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs for February; in January, their scores were 49.4 and 53.5, respectively. China also will see the results of the manufacturing PMI from Caixin, with analysts looking for a score of 48.4 - steady from the previous month.
South Korea will provide February numbers for imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are expected to fall 164 percent on year after losing 20.1 percent in January. Exports are called lower by 16.3 percent after falling 18.5 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $5.682 billion, up from $5.3 billion a month earlier.
Indonesia will release February data for consumer prices; in January, inflation was up 0.51 percent on month and 4.14 percent on year, while core CPI added 0.17 percent on month and 3.62 percent on year.
Thailand will see February numbers for consumer and producer prices; in January, CPI was down 0.26 percent on month and 0.53 percent on year, while PPI fell 1.1 percent on month and 2.4 percent on year.
Finally, the markets in South Korea are closed for Independence Day, and will re-open on Wednesday.
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