CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Bank of Japan will on Wednesday release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on January 22 and 23, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.
At the meeting, the bank voted to hold its target of raising the amount of outstanding JGB holdings at an annual pace of about JPY 80 trillion. It also decided to hold the -0.1 percent interest rate on current accounts that financial institutions maintain at the bank.
Japan also will see January numbers for core machine orders, which are expected to jump 5.2 percent on month and fall 0.5 percent on year after tumbling 11.9 percent on month and 5.0 percent on year in December.
China will release February figures for retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment.
Retail sales are expected to rise 10.0 percent on year, slowing from 10.2 percent in January. Industrial output is tipped to gain 6.2 percent, slowing from 6.6 percent in the previous month. FAI is pegged at 7.0 percent, down from 7.2 percent a month earlier.
Australia will see March results for the consumer confidence index from Westpac; in February, the index sank 2.3 percent to a score of 102.7.
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