South Korea GDP On Tap For Friday

(RTTNews) - South Korea will on Friday release gross domestic product numbers for the fourth quarter of 2014, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

GDP is expected to have added 0.4 percent on quarter and 2.8 percent on year, slowing from 0.9 percent on quarter and 3.0 percent on year in the previous three months.

China will see preliminary January results for the HSBC Manufacturing PMI, with analysts looking for a score of 49.5 - down slightly from 49.6 in December.

Japan will see January numbers for the manufacturing PMI from Markit Economics; in December, the index had a score of 52.0.

Singapore will release consumer price data for December, with forecasts suggesting a decline of 0.1 percent on year following the 0.3 percent contraction in November.

Taiwan will provide December data for commercial sales and industrial output. Sales are tipped to add 1.1 percent on year, up from 0.7 percent in November. Output is called higher by 4.68 percent, down from 6.86 percent in the previous month.