Japan Data On Tap For Tuesday

(RTTNews) - Japan is scheduled to release a raft of data on Tuesday, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are March figures for unemployment, industrial production, retail sales, construction orders and housing starts.

The jobless rate is expected to ease to 2.5 percent from 2.6 percent on February, while the job-to-applicant ratio is seen steady at 1.26. Industrial output is tipped to rise 3.4 percent on month after dipping 0.6 percent a month earlier.

Retail sales are expected to add 2.5 percent on year, easing from 4.7 percent in the previous month. Housing starts are expected to sink an annual 7.6 percent after dropping 8.2 percent a month prior. Construction orders tumbled 11.0 percent on year in February.

Australia will provide Match figures for housing credit and retail sales. Credit is expected to add 0.3 percent on month, easing from 0.4 percent in February. Sales are seen higher by 0.2 percent on month, slowing from 0.3 percent a month earlier.

China will see April results for its manufacturing, non-manufacturing and composite indexes from the National Bureau of Statistics; in March, their scores were 50.8, 53.0 and 52.7, respectively.

Thailand will provide March figures for industrial production and current account; in February, industrial production was down 2.84 percent on year and the current account surplus was $2 billion.

Taiwan will release preliminary Q1 data for gross domestic product; in the three months prior, GDP was up 4.93 percent.

South Korea will release March figures for industrial production and retail sales. In February, industrial production was up 3.1 percent on month and 4.8 percent on year, while retail sales slipped 3.1 percent on month.