Japan Data On Tap For Friday

(RTTNews) - Japan is scheduled to release a raft of data on Friday, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are February figures for inflation, unemployment, household spending and retail sales.

Inflation is expected to rise 1.5 percent on year, up from 1.4 percent in January - while core inflation is called unchanged at 1.3 percent. The jobless rate is expected to hold steady at 3.7 percent, while household spending is expected to add 0.1 percent on year - slowing from 1.1 percent in the previous month.

Retail sales are tipped to add 0.1 percent on month and 3.5 percent on year after rising 1.6 percent on month and 4.4 percent on year in January.

South Korea will provide February figures for industrial production, with analysts expecting a decline of 0.8 percent on month and a gain of 3.6 percent on year. That follows the 0.1 percent monthly increase and the 3.8 percent annual contraction in January.

Malaysia will see January figures for unemployment; in December, the jobless rate was 2.9 percent and the participation rate came in at 67.9 percent.

Singapore will release February numbers for producer prices; in January, prices were up 0.3 percent on month and 0.9 percent on year.