BoJ Minutes On Tap For Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will on Wednesday release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on December 18 and 19, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

At the policy board meeting, members voted 8-1 to maintain the uncollateralized overnight call rate to remain at around 0.25 percent. This was the highest since late 2008. The BoJ ended its negative interest rate policy in March and lifted the interest rate in July to 0.25 percent. The BoJ tightened its policy twice last year.

Australia will release Q4 numbers for consumer prices, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 0.3 percent on quarter and 2.5 percent on year. That follows the 0.2 percent quarterly increase and the 2.8 percent yearly gain in Q3.

The trimmed mean is seen higher by 0.6 percent on quarter and 3.3 percent on year, while the weighted mean is expected to rise 0.6 percent on quarter and 3.5 percent on year.

Finally, most of the Asia=Pacific markets are closed on Wednesday for the Lunar New Year, including South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Indonesia.