Australia Trade Data On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - Australia is on Thursday scheduled to release January figures for trade balance and retail sales, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

The trade balance is expected to show a surplus of A$2.90 billion, down from A$3.681 billion in December. Retail sales are tipped to rise 0.3 percent on month after sinking 0.4 percent in December.

Australia also will see February figures for the Performance of Construction Index from AiG; in January, the index score was 43.1.

Japan will see preliminary January results for its leading and coincident indexes. The leading index is tipped to see a score of 96.0, down from 97.5 in December. The coincident is pegged at 98.9, down from 101.8 a month earlier.

The Philippines will provide Q4 numbers for unemployment; in the three months prior, the jobless rate was 5.1 percent with a participation rate of 60.6 percent.