Japan Rate Decision On Tap For Friday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will wrap up its monetary policy meeting on Friday and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The BoJ is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate steady at 0.1 percent.

Japan also will see April data for Tokyo inflation. Overall inflation is expected to hold steady at an annual 2.6 percent, while core CPI is tipped to rise 2.2 percent on year - easing from 2.4 percent a month earlier.

Australia will see Q1 numbers for import, export and producer prices. In the previous three months, import prices rose 1.1 percent on quarter and export prices jumped 5.6 percent on quarter. Producer prices were up 0.9 percent on quarter and 4.1 percent on year.

Singapore will release March figures for industrial production in February, with forecasts suggesting a decline of 8.8 percent on month and 1.5 percent on year. That follows the 14.2 percent monthly surge and the 3.8 percent annual gain in February.