Australia Unemployment Data Due On Thursday

(RTTNews) - Australia will on Thursday release July figures for unemployment, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

The jobless rate is expected to tick up to 3.6 percent from 3.5 percent in June. The Australian economy is tipped to add 15,000 jobs following the addition of 32,600 jobs in the previous month. The participation rate is called steady at 66.8 percent.

New Zealand will provide Q2 numbers for producer prices. PPI inputs are called steady at 0.2 percent on quarter, while outputs are expected to rise to 0.7 percent from 0.3 percent in the previous quarter,

Japan will see June results for core machine orders and its tertiary industry index, plus July figures for imports, exports and trade balance.

Machine orders are tipped to rise 3.6 percent on month and fall 5.5 percent on year after sinking 7.6 percent on month and 8.7 percent on year in May. The tertiary industry activity index is expected to ease 0.2 percent on month after rising 1.2 percent in the previous month.

Imports are expected to sink 14.7 percent on year after dropping 12.9 percent in June. Exports are called lower by an annual 0.8 percent after rising 1.5 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at 24.6 billion yen, down from 43.0 billion yen a month earlier.

Singapore will see July figures for non-oil domestic exports, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 2.6 percent on month and a fall of 16.5 percent on year. That follows the 5.4 percent monthly gain and the 15.5 percent decline in June.

Hong Kong will release unemployment data for July, with the jobless rate expected to ease to 2.8 percent from 2.9 percent in June.

Finally, the markets in Indonesia are closed on Thursday for Independence Day and will re-open on Friday.