Australia Unemployment Data Due On Thursday

(RTTNews) - Australia will on Thursday release January jobless figures, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

The unemployment rate is expected to come in at 4.2 percent, up from 4.1 percent in December, while the Australian economy is expected to add 20,100 jobs following the increase of 65,200 jobs a month earlier.

Japan will provide December data for core machinery order, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 5.1 percent on month and 3.9 percent on year. That follows the 11.0 percent monthly contraction and the 6.4 percent yearly decline in November.

South Korea will provide January numbers for imports, exports and trade balance. In December, imports were up 11.7 percent on year and exports jumped an annual 33.9 percent for a trade surplus of $8.74 billion.

Malaysia will release January numbers for consumer prices; in December, overall inflation was up 0.3 percent on month and 1.6 percent on year.

The central bank in Indonesia will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and announce its decision on interest rates; the benchmark lending rate (4.75 percent), deposit facility rate (3.75 percent) and the lending facility rate (5.50 percent) are all expected to be unchanged.

Finally, the markets in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong remain closed for the Lunar New Year.