Japan Data Due On Friday

(RTTNews) - Japan is scheduled to release a raft of data on Friday, headlining a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are December numbers for unemployment, industrial production, retail sales, construction orders and housing starts, as well as January figures for Tokyo inflation.

The jobless rate is expected to hold steady at 2.5 percent, while industrial production is tipped to rise 0.3 percent on month after slipping 2,2 percent in November. Retail sales are seen higher by 3.4 percent on year, up from 2.8 percent in the previous month. Construction orders fell 10.2 percent on year and housing starts sank 1.8 percent in November. Tokyo inflation was up 3.0 percent on year, while core CPI rose 2.4 percent.

Australia will provide December data for private sector credit and Q4 numbers for producer prices. Credit is expected to hold steady at 0.5 percent, while producer prices were up 0.9 percent on quarter and 3.9 percent on year in Q3.

Thailand is scheduled to release December numbers for industrial production, current account, imports, exports and trade balance. In November, industrial production was down 3.58 percent on year, while the current account saw a surplus of $2.00 billion. Imports were up 2.3 percent on year and exports rose an annual 9.1 percent for a trade surplus of $2.00 billion.

Finally, the markets Taiwan, China and Hong Kong remain closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.