Japan Data, Interest Rate Decision Due On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will wrap up its monetary policy meeting on Wednesday and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The BoJ is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 0.10 percent.

Japan also will release June figures for industrial production, retail sales, housing starts and construction orders, as well as July results for its household confidence index.

Industrial production is expected to sink 4.2 percent on month after rising 3.6 percent in May. Sales are seen higher by an annual 3.3 percent, up from 3.0 percent in the previous month. Housing starts are expected to slip 2.3 percent on year after losing 5.3 percent a month earlier. Construction orders rose an annual 2.1 percent in May, while the household confidence index had a score of 36.4 in June.

New Zealand will provide June numbers for building consents and July results for the business confidence index from ANZ and the activity index from NBNZ. In May, permits fell 1.7 percent on month, while July saw a business confidence score of 6.1 and an activity index increase of 12.2 percent.

South Korea will see June data for industrial production and retail sales. Production is tipped to fall 0.7 percent on month and rise 2.3 percent on year after slipping 1.2 percent on month and adding 3.5 percent on year in May. Sales fell 0.2 percent on month in May.

Australia will release June figures for private sector credit and retail sales and Q2 data for consumer prices. Credit is expected to hold steady at 0.4 percent on month, while sales are tipped to add 0.3 percent on month - slowing from 0.6 percent in May. Inflation is expected to rise 1.0 percent on quarter and 3.8 percent on year after gaining 1.0 percent on quarter and 3.6 percent on year in the three months prior.

China will see July results for its manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite PMIs from the National Bureau of Statistics; in June, their scores were 49.5, 50.5 and 50.5, respectively.

Thailand will provide June results for industrial production, imports, exports, trade balance and current account. In May, production fell 1.54 percent on year, while imports slipped 2.3 percent on year, exports climbed an annual 7.8 percent, the trade surplus was $2.80 billion and the current account showed a surplus of $0.700 billion.

Taiwan will release preliminary Q2 figures for gross domestic product, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 4.65 percent on year - easing from 6.56 percent in the previous three months.

Hong Kong will see preliminary Q2 data for gross domestic product; in the first quarter, GDP was up 2.3 percent on quarter and 2.7 percent on year.