Japan Inflation Data Due On Friday

(RTTNews) - Japan will on Friday release December figures for consumer prices, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. In November, overall inflation was down 0.4 percent on month and 0.9 percent on year, while core CPI also sank 0.9 percent on year.

Japan also will see flash January results for the manufacturing, services and composite PMIs from Jibun Bank; in December, their scores were 50.0, 47.7 and 48.5, respectively.

Australia will release December numbers for retail sales and also see January results for the manufacturing, services and composite PMIs from Markit Economics.

Retail sales are tipped to fall 2.5 percent on month after jumping 7.1 percent in December. In December, the manufacturing PMI was at 55.7, services at 57.0 and composite 55.6.

New Zealand will see Q4 numbers for consumer prices, with forecasts calling for a flat reading on quarter and an increase of 1.0 percent on year. That follows the 0.7 percent quarterly increase and the 1.4 percent yearly gain in the three months prior.

Taiwan will provide December figures for unemployment; in November, the jobless rate was 3.77 percent.

Hong Kong will see Q1 results for its business confidence index; the reading in the previous three months was -8.

Thailand will release December numbers for imports, exports and trade balance. In November, imports were up 0.99 percent on year and exports were down an annual 3.65 percent for a trade surplus of $0.05 billion.