New Zealand Consumer Price Data Due On Friday

(RTTNews) - New Zealand will on Friday see Q4 numbers for consumer prices, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

Inflation is tipped to have added 0.4 percent on quarter and 1.8 percent on year after rising 0.7 on quarter and 1.5 percent on year in the three months prior.

New Zealand will also release December data for credit card spending; in November, spending was up 1.6 percent on month and 4.5 percent on year.

Japan also will see inflation figures for December, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 0.7 percent on year for both overall and core CPI - up in both cases from 0.5 percent in November.

Japan also will see preliminary January results for the manufacturing PMI from Nikkei and the services and composite indexes from Jibun. In November, the manufacturing index had a score of 48.4, while the services index came in at 49.4 for a composite score of 48.6.

Singapore will provide December numbers for producer prices and industrial production. In November, producer prices were down 0.9 percent on month and 4.9 percent on year, while industrial production sank 9.4 percent on month and 9.3 percent on year.

Finally, the markets in South Korea, Taiwan and China are closed on Friday for the Lunar New Year.