Japan Data On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - Japan is scheduled to release a batch of data on Thursday, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are July figures for industrial production, retail sales, construction orders and housing starts.

Production is expected to slip 1.4 percent on month after rising 2.4 percent in June. Sales are called higher by an annual 5.4 percent, easing from 5.9 percent in the previous month. Construction orders are tipped to add 2.1 percent on year, down from 8.6 percent a month earlier. Housing starts are expected to fall 0.8 percent on year after sinking 4.8 percent in June.

Australia will provide Q2 data for capital spending and July figures for private sector credit. Capex is expected to rise 1.1 percent on quarter, down from 2.4 percent in the previous three months. Credit is tipped to add 0.3 percent on month, up from 0.2 percent in June.

South Korea will release July numbers for industrial production and retail sales. Production is expected to sink 0.4 percent on month and 5.2 percent on year after falling 1.0 percent on month and 5.6 percent on year in June. Sales are called flat on month after rising 1.0 percent in June.

China will see August results for its manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite indexes; in July, their scores were 49.3, 51.5 and 51.1, respectively.

Hong Kong will release July numbers for retail sales; in June, sales were up 19.6 percent on year.

Thailand will provide July data for industrial production, current account, imports, exports and trade balance. Production is expected to fall 4.00 percent on year after dropping 5.24 percent in June. The current account surplus in June was $1.40 billion. Imports were down 9.3 percent on year in the previous month and exports fell 5.9 percent for trae surplus of $2.0 billion.

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