South Korea GDP Data Due On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - South Korea will on Tuesday release an advance estimate for Q4 gross domestic product, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

GDP is expected to gain 0.7 percent on quarter and sink 1.7 percent on year after climbing 2.1 percent on quarter and falling 1.1 percent on year in the previous three months.

The Bank of Japan will release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on December 17 and 18. At the meeting, the bank's policy board extended the duration of emergency loan facility to September 2021.

The bank also removed upper limit of JPY 100 billion on funds against loans that financial institutions make on their own. The board voted 8-1 to retain the interest rate at -0.1 percent on current accounts that financial institutions maintain at the central bank.

New Zealand will see December results for credit card spending and for the services PMI from BusinessNZ. Card spending is expected to sink 8.9 percent on year after dropping an annual 5.6 percent in November. The services PMI score in November was 46.7.

Singapore will provide December data for industrial production; in November, industrial production was up 7.2 percent on month and 17.9 percent on year.

Hong Kong will release December numbers for imports, exports and trade balance. In November, imports were up 5.1 percent on year and exports rose an annual 5.6 percent for a trade deficit of HKD25.6 billion.

Finally, the markets in Australia are closed on Tuesday in observance of Australia Day and will reopen on Wednesday.