Japan Rate Decision On Tap For Friday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will wrap up its monetary policy meeting on Friday and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The BoJ is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at -0.1 percent.

Japan also will see November inflation data; in October, overall inflation was down 0.4 percent on year and 0.1 percent on month, while core CPI slipped an annual 0.7 percent.

New Zealand will provide November figures for imports, exports and trade balance. In October, imports were worth NZ$5.29 billion and exports were at NZ$4.78 billion for a trade deficit of NZ$500 million.

New Zealand also will see December results for the business confidence index from ANZ; in November, the index fell 6.9 percent.