Japan Data Due On Tuesday

(RTTNews) - Japan is scheduled to release a batch of data on Tuesday, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are February figures for unemployment, industrial production, retail sales, construction orders and housing stars, plus March data for Tokyo area consumer prices.

The jobless rate (1.8 percent) and the jobs/applicant ratio (1.18) are expected to be unchanged, while industrial production is expected to slip 2.0 percent on month after rising 4.3 percent in January.

Retail sales are seen higher by 0.9 percent on year, easing from 1.8 percent in the previous month. Construction orders were up 5.7 percent on year in January and housing starts slipped an annual 0.4 percent.

China will see March results for its manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite indexes from the National Bureau of Statistics; in February, their scores were 49.0, 49.5 and 49.5, respectively.

The Reserve Bank of Australia will release the minutes from its March 17 monetary policy meeting. At the meeting, the RBA lifted its benchmark rate for the second straight time as the conflict in the Middle East poses material risk to inflation. The bank decided to hike the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 4.10 percent, with five members voting to raise the rate and four seeking to hold it at 3.85 percent.

Australia also will see February numbers for private sector credit, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 0.6 percent on month - ip from 0.5 percent in January.

Thailand will release February numbers for imports, exports, trade balance and current account. In January, imports were up 30.1 percent on year and exports climbed an annual 23.6 percent for a trade deficit of $0.70 billion. The current account surplus was $0.700 billion.

South Korea will provide February figures for industrial production and retail sales. Production is expected to rise 1.8 percent on month and 6.0 percent on year after slipping 1.9 percent on month and climbing 7.1 percent on year in January. Sales are seen higher by1.0 percent on month, slowing from 2.3 percent in the previous month.