New Zealand Rate Decision On Tap For Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Reserve Bank of New Zealand 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 central bank is expected to hike its Official Cash Rate by 25 basis points, from 2.50 percent to 3 percent.

New Zealand also will see Q2 figures for producer prices; in the previous three months, producer price inputs were up 3.6 percent on quarter and outputs were up 2.6 percent.

Japan will provide June data for core machine orders and July figures for imports, exports and trade balance. Machine orders are tipped to add 1.3 percent on month and 7.5 percent on year after slipping 5.6 percent on month and climbing 7.4 percent on year in May.

Imports are expected to surged 45.7 percent on year, easing from 46.1 percent in June. Exports are called higher by an annual 18.2 percent, down from 19.4 percent in the previous month. The trade deficit is pegged at 1.405 trillion yen following the 1.383 trillion yen shortfall a month earlier.

Singapore will release July numbers for non-oil exports, with forecasts suggesting a drop of 3.8 percent on month and an increase of 6.0 percent on year. That follows the 3.7 percent monthly increase and the 9.0 percent yearly spike in June, when the trade surplus was SGD4.49 billion.

Hong Kong will see July numbers for unemployment; in June, the jobless rate was 4.7 percent.

Australia will provide Q2 numbers for wage prices, with forecasts calling for a gain of 0.8 percent on quarter and 2.7 percent on year. That follows the 0.7 percent quarterly increase and the 2.4 percent yearly gain in the previous three months.

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