Japan Data On Tap For Friday

(RTTNews) - Japan is scheduled to release a raft of data on Friday, headlining a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are February figures for industrial production, housing starts, unemployment and retail sales, as well as March numbers for Tokyo inflation.

Industrial production is expected to add 2.7 percent on month after falling 5.3 percent in January. Housing starts are expected to slip 0.5 percent on year after rising 6.6 percent in the previous month. The jobless rate is called steady at 2.4 percent.

Retail sales are predicted to climb 5.8 percent on year, up from 5.0 percent in January. Overall Tokyo inflation is tipped to rise 3.3 percent on year, easing from 3.4 percent - while core CPI is expected to ease to an annual 3.1 percent from 3.3 percent.

Australia will release February figures for private sector credit; in January, private sector credit was up 0.3 percent on month and housing credit rose 0.4 percent.

South Korea will provide February numbers for industrial production and retail sales. Production is expected to sink 0.5 percent on month and 8.3 percent on year after rising 2.9 percent on month and sinking 12.7 percent on year in January. Retail sales were down 2.1 percent on month in January.

China will see March results for its manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite PMIs; in February, their scores were 52.6, 56.3 and 56.4, respectively.

Hong Kong will release February figures for retail sales; in January, sales were up 7.0 percent on year.

Thailand will provide February data for current account; in January, the current account deficit was $2.00 billion.