Japan Trade Data On Tap For Wednesday

(RTTNews) - Japan will on Wednesday release February figures for imports, exports and trade balance, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

Imports are expected to rise 7.3 percent on year after surging 25.1 percent in January. Exports are called higher by 12.4 percent after adding 9.5 percent in the previous month. The trade balance is expected to show a deficit of 600.9 billion yen after posting a shortfall of 2,791.7 billion yen a month earlier.

Japan also will see final January figures for its leading and coincident indexes; little change is expected from the preliminary scores of 112.2 and 114.8, respectively.

Japan also will release January data for its all industry index, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 1.2 percent on month following the 0.1 percent decline in December.

New Zealand will release current account data for the fourth quarter of 2013, with analysts expecting a deficit of NZ$1.309 billion. That follows the NZ$4.780 billion shortfall in the previous three months.

Australia will see February results for skilled vacancies, as well as for the Westpac leading index. Vacancies were up 1.4 percent on month in January, while the leading index eased 0.2 percent on month.