Bank Of Japan Minutes On Tap For Friday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will on Friday release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on February 17 and 18, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

At the meeting, the central bank kept its monetary policy unchanged, as expected, but lowered its inflation assessment after data showed that the country had exited recession.

Japan also will see February figures for supermarket sales and convenience store sales; in January, they were down 1.7 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

New Zealand will provide February numbers for credit card spending, and also see March results for the ANZ consumer confidence index.

Credit card spending was up 1.9 percent on month and 6.2 percent on year in January, while the ANZ index fell 3.8 percent on month to a score of 124.

Malaysia will release February data for consumer prices, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 0.2 percent on year, slowing from 1.0 percent in January.

Taiwan will provide February numbers for export orders, with analysts looking for a gain of 3.5 percent on year after rising 8.1 percent in January.

Hong Kong will see February figures for consumer prices, with forecasts suggesting a yearly inflation rate of 4.2 percent - up from 4.1 percent in January.