Japan Rate Decision On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will on Thursday conclude its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The BoJ is widely expected to keep rates on hold at 0.10 percent.

The BoJ also will release its monetary base target for 2014, with forecasts suggest no change at 270 trillion yen.

Japan also will see September numbers for housing starts, construction starts and labor cash earnings, as well as the October reading for the Nomura/JMMA Manufacturing PMI.

Housing starts are expected to rise 12.5 percent on year to 983,000 after adding an annual 8.8 percent to 960,000 in August. Construction orders jumped 21.4 percent in August. Labor cash earnings are expected to ease 0.4 percent on year after dipping 0.6 percent a month earlier.

Australia will see September numbers for private sector credit and building approvals, as well as Q3 figures for import and export prices.

Private sector credit is expected to add 0.4 percent on month and 3.4 percent on year after rising 0.3 percent on month and 3.4 percent on year in August.

Building approvals are tipped to gain 2.8 percent on month and 1.2 percent on year after shedding 4.7 percent on month and spiking 7.7 percent on year in the previous month. Import and export prices are both called higher by 3.5 percent on quarter after both eased 0.3 percent in the previous three months.

New Zealand will see October scores for both the NBNZ business confidence survey and the ANZ activity outlook; in September, they came in at 54.1 and 45.3, respectively.

Singapore will provide unemployment figures for the third quarter of 2013, with analysts expecting the rate to hold steady at 2.1 percent.

Thailand will announce trade data for September; in August, imports were worth $17.78 billion and exports were at $19.99 billion for a surplus of $2.21 billion.

Malaysia will release producer price data for September; in August, PPI was up 0.4 percent on month and down 2.6 percent on year.

Hong Kong will see September numbers for retail sales; in August, sales were up 7.2 percent on year.