New Zealand Interest Rate Decision On Tap For Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will wrap up its monetary policy meeting on Wednesday and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The RBNA is expected to keep its Official Cash Rate steady at 5.50 percent.

Japan will provide March figures for core machine orders and April data for imports, exports and trade balance. In February, machine orders were up 7.7 percent on month and down 1.8 percent on year.

Imports are expected to climb 9.00 percent on year after slumping 4.9 percent in March. Exports are called higher by an annual 11.1 percent, up from 7.3 percent in the previous month. The trade deficit is pegged at 339.5 billion yen following the 366.5 billion yen surplus a month earlier.

The central bank in Indonesia will conclude its monetary policy meeting and announce its decision on interest rates, with no change expected for the benchmark lending rate (6.25 percent), deposit facility rate (5.50 percent) and lending facility rate (7.00 percent).

Taiwan will see April figures for unemployment; in March, the jobless rate was 3.4 percent.

Finally, the markets in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are closed on Wednesday for Wesak Day and will re-open on Thursday.