Japan Data On Tap For Friday
(RTTNews) - Japan is scheduled to release a batch of data on Friday, headlining a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are April figures for unemployment, industrial production, retail sales, housing starts and construction orders, as well as May data for Tokyo-area inflation.
The unemployment rate (2.6 percent) and the jobs-to-applicant ratio (1.28) are both expected to be unchanged. Industrial production is tipped to rise 1.5 percent on month, easing from 4.4 percent in March.
Retail sales are expected to climb 1.8 percent on year, up from 1.2 percent in the previous month. Housing starts are seen lower by an annual 0.2 percent after slumping 12.8 percent a month earlier. Construction orders surged 31.4 percent on year in March. Tokyo overall inflation was up 1.8 percent on year in April, while core CPI climbed 1.6 percent.
South Korea will provide April numbers for industrial production and retail sales. In March, industrial production fell 3.2 percent on month and gained 0.7 percent on year, Retail sales rose 1.5 percent on month.
Australia will see April data for private sector credit, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 0.4 percent on month - accelerating from 0.3 percent in March.
China will see May results for its manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite PMIs from the National Bureau of Statistics; in April, their scores were 50.4, 51.2 and 51.7, respectively.
Hong Kong will provide April figures for retail sales; in March, sales were down 7.0 percent on year.
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