Japan Data On Tap For 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 June figures for unemployment, industrial production, retail sales and housing starts, as well as July numbers for Tokyo inflation and consumer confidence.

The jobless rate is expected to tick down to 2.5 percent from 2.6 percent in May, while the jobs-to-applicant ratio is expected to improve to 1.25 from 1.24. Housing starts were down 4.3 percent on year. Industrial production was down 7.5 percent on month and 3.1 percent on year in May, while retail sales rose 0.6 percent on month and 3.6 percent on year.

In June, overall inflation in Tokyo was up 2.3 percent on year, while core CPI rose an annual 2.1 percent. The consumer confidence index score was 32.1.

South Korea will provide June data for industrial production and retail sales. In May, industrial output was up 0.1 percent on month and 7.3 percent on year, while retail sales fell 0.1 percent on month and rose 0.7 percent on year.

Singapore will release June figures for bank lending, producer prices and import and export prices, plus Q2 numbers for unemployment.

In May, lending was at SGD839.8 billion, while producer prices skyrocketed 31.4 percent on year, import prices jumped an annual 26.8 percent and export prices climbed 27.7 percent. The jobless rate was 2.2 percent in Q1.

Taiwan will provide an advance estimate for Q2 gross domestic product, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 3.1 percent on year - down from 3.14 percent in the three months prior.

The Philippines will see June figures for producer prices; in May, producer prices were up 6.9 percent on year.

Australia will release June data for private sector credit and Q2 data for producer prices. In May, credit was up 0.8 percent on month and 9.0 percent on year; in Q1, producer prices climbed 1.6 percent on quarter and 4.9 percent on year.

Finally, the markets in Thailand remain closed on Friday for King Maha's birthday and will re-open on Monday.