Japan Data On Tap For Friday

(RTTNews) - Japan is scheduled to release a batch of data on Friday, headlining a busy day in Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are September figures for inflation, unemployment, household spending, construction orders and housing starts.

Inflation is expected to hold steady at 3.3 percent, while core CPI is tipped to ease to 3.0 percent from 3.1 percent in August. The jobless rate is expected to rise to 3.6 percent from 3.5 percent in the previous month.

Household spending is expected to fall 4.3 percent on year after losing 4.7 percent a month earlier. Housing starts are tipped to plunge an annual 17.2 percent after losing 12.5 percent in the previous month. Construction orders climbed 8.6 percent on year in August.

Australia will provide Q3 numbers for producer prices and September figures for private sector credit. PPI was down 0.1 percent on quarter and up 2.3 percent on year in Q2. Private sector credit is expected to add 0.4 percent on month and 5.3 percent on year after gaining 0.4 percent on month and 5.1 percent on year in August.

New Zealand will see September numbers for building permits, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 1.0 percent on month following the flat reading in August.

Thailand will release September data for imports, exports, trade balance and current account. In August, imports were worth $16.46 billion and exports were at $18.65 billion for a trade surplus of $2.20 billion. The current account surplus was $0.24 billion.

Malaysia will provide producer price figures for September; in August, PPI was down 0.9 percent on month and up 0.5 percent on year.

Singapore will see unemployment data for the third quarter of 2014; analysts expect the jobless rate to hold steady at 2.0 percent.