Bank Of Japan Minutes Due On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will release the minutes from its March 18-19 monetary policy meeting, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

At the meeting, the BoJ raised its interest rates for the first time in nearly two decades and became the world's last central bank to end negative rates amid signs that inflation is strengthening. The bank raised the overnight interest rate to around 0 to 0.1 percent from minus 0.1 percent.

South Korea will provide April numbers for consumer prices; in March, inflation was up 0.1 percent on month and 3.1 percent on year.

Australia will see March figures for imports, exports, trade balance and building approvals. In February, imports were up 4.8 percent on month and exports fell 2.2 percent on month for a trade surplus of A$7.280 billion. Building approvals are expected to add 2.9 percent on month and 5.2 percent on year after slipping 1.9 percent on month and gaining 10.0 percent on year.

Hong Kong will release preliminary Q1 data for gross domestic product; in the three months prior, GDP was up 0.4 percent on quarter and 4.3 percent on year.

Indonesia will provide April figures for consumer prices; in March, overall inflation was up 0.52 percent on month and 3.05 percent on year, while core CPI climbed an annual 1.77 percent.

Many of the regional territories will see April results for their respective manufacturing PMIs from S&P Global, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Finally, the markets in China remain shuttered for Labor Day, and will reopen on Monday.