South Korea Interest Rate Decision On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Korea will wrap up its monetary policy meeting on Thursday and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The BoK is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at the record low 0.50 percent.

Australia will see Q4 figures for private capital expenditure, with forecasts suggesting a flat quarterly reading following the 3.0 percent decline in the three months prior.

Japan will release final December data for its leading and coincident economic indexes. The leading index is tipped to see a score of 94.9, down from 96.1 in November. The coincident is pegged at 87.8, down from 89.0 a month prior.

Hong Kong will see January figures for imports, exports and trade balance. In December, imports were up 14.1 percent on year and exports gained an annual 11.7 percent for a trade deficit of HKD45.7 billion.

Thailand will provide January numbers for industrial production, current account and retail sales. Industrial production is tipped to see a decline of 5.3 percent on year following the 2.44 percent annual drop in December. The current account deficit in December was $0.7 billion, while retail sales skidded an annual 2.7 percent.