Japan Data, Rate Decision Due On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will wrap up its monetary policy meeting on Friday and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a busy for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The BoJ is expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 1.25 percent.

Japan also will see September numbers for unemployment, industrial production, retail sales, construction orders and housing starts, plus October figures for Tokyo inflation.

The jobless rate (2.5 percent) and jobs-to-applicant ratio (1.18) are both expected to be unchanged. Industrial production is tipped to increase 1.2 percent on month after slipping 2.4 percent in August.

Retail sales are seen higher by an annual 3.3 percent, up from 2.7 percent a month earlier. Construction orders were down 3.6 percent on year in August and housing starts were up 6.1 percent. Overall Tokyo inflation is called higher by 3.3 percent on year, up from 2.7 percent in September, while core CPI is seen higher by an annual 2.6 percent - also up from 2.7 percent a month earlier.

South Korea will provide September data for industrial production and retail sales. In August, production was down 4.8 percent on month and 2.2 percent on year, while sales slumped 1.8 percent on month.

Australia will release September numbers for private sector credit and Q3 data for producer prices. Credit is expected to add 0.5 percent on month, easing from 0.6 percent in August. Producer prices were up 1.3 percent on quarter and 3.6 percent on year in the previous three months.

Singapore will see unemployment figures for the third quarter; in the previous three months, the jobless rate was 1.9 percent.

Taiwan will provide preliminary Q3 data for gross domestic product, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 12.00 percent - slowing from 12.93 percent in the previous quarter.

Thailand will release September numbers for industrial production, imports, exports, trade balance and current account. Industrial production is tipped to rise 2.80 percent on year, down from 4.44 percent in August.

In August, imports were up 31.3 percent on year and exports jumped an annual 25.3 percent for a trade surplus of $1.80 billion. The current account surplus was $2.40 billion.