Bank Of Japan Rate Decision On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The central bank is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at -0.1 percent although it may introduce other forms of stimulus.

Japan also will release September figures for retail sales and October figures for consumer confidence. In August, retail sales gained 4.6 percent on month and fell 1.9 percent on year, while the consumer confidence index score in September was 32.7.

Australia will see Q3 numbers for import and export prices; in the three months prior, import prices were down 1.9 percent on quarter and export prices were down 2.4 percent.

Singapore will provide September figures for import and export prices and producer prices, as well as preliminary Q3 data for unemployment. In August, import prices were down 6.8 percent on year, export prices dropped 8.2 percent on year and producer prices tumbled 9.4 percent on year. In the previous three months, the jobless rate was 2.8 percent.

Finally, the markets in Malaysia and Indonesia are closed on Thursday in observance of the birth of the prophet Muhammad. Malaysia will re-open on Friday, while Indonesia is off until Monday.