Australia Data On Tap For Monday

(RTTNews) - Australia is scheduled to release a raft of data on Monday, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

On tap are January numbers for building approvals, Q4 figures for company inventories and operating profits, and February results for the AiG Performance of Service Index, the TD Securities inflation forecast and the ANZ job advertisement index.

In December, building approvals fell 20.0 percent on month and 5.5 percent on year. In the third quarter, inventories were up 0.2 percent and profits were down 0.2 percent. In January, the service index score was 54.9, the inflation forecast suggested an increase of 0.3 percent on month and 2.0 percent on year and job ads jumped 6.2 percent.

China will see February results for the services and composite PMIs from Caixin; in January, their scores were 54.7 and 53.7, respectively.

Japan also will see February results for the services and composite PMIs from Caixin; in January, their scores were 51.9 and 52.8, respectively.

Malaysia will provide January numbers for imports, exports and trade balance. In December, imports were worth 72.1 billion ringgit and exports were at 79.3 billion ringgit for a trade surplus of 7.3 billion ringgit.

The Philippines will release February figures for consumer and producer prices. In January, overall inflation was up 0.7 percent on month and 4.0 percent on year, while core CPI advanced an annual 3.9 percent. Producer prices were down 0.3 percent on month and 1.8 percent on year.

Thailand will see February data for consumer and producer prices. In January, overall inflation was up 0.07 percent on month and 0.68 percent on year, while core CPI added 0.03 percent on month and 0.58 percent on year. Producer prices gained 0.4 percent on month and fell 1.1 percent on year.