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 modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The BoJ is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at -0.10 percent.

Japan also will see January figures for household spending and February data for producer prices. Spending is expected to rise 1.4 percent on month and fall 0.1 percent on year after slipping 2.1 percent on month and 1.3 percent on year in December. Producer prices are tipped to dip 0.3 percent on month and climb 8.4 percent on year after rising 0.7 percent on month and 9.5 percent on year in January.

South Korea will release January numbers for current account; in December, the current account surplus was $2.68 billion.

Thailand will see February results for its consumer confidence index; in January, the index score was 51.7.