CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Australia will on Thursday release January numbers for trade balance and building approvals, highlighting another busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.
The trade balance is expected to show a surplus of A$3.80 billion, up from A$3.511 billion in December. Approvals are called lower by 0.5 percent on month and 11.6 percent on year after slipping 1.2 percent on month and 11.4 percent on year in December.
Japan will provide January numbers for loans and discounts, plus February figures for monetary base. Loans were up 2.81 percent on year in December, while the monetary base jumped an annual 22.6 percent in January.
Hong Kong will see January figures for retail sales; in December, sales slipped 2.8 percent on year.
The central bank in Malaysia will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates; the bank is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 3.00 percent.
Thailand will release February numbers for consumer prices; in January, overall inflation was up 0.16 percent on month and 1.55 percent on year, while core CPI added 0.07 percent on month and 0.75 percent on year.
South Korea will see January figures for industrial production and retail sales, as well as the February results for the manufacturing PMI from Nikkei.
Output was down 0.5 percent on month and up 4.3 percent on year in December, while retail sales were down 1.2 percent on month and up 1.6 percent on year. The manufacturing PMI had a score of 49.0 in January.
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