Australia Unemployment Data Due On Thursday

(RTTNews) - Australia will on Thursday release unemployment figures for February, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

The jobless rate is expected to hold steady at 5.5 percent, with the addition of 20,000 jobs following the gain of 16,000 a month earlier.

Japan will see January results for its all industry activity index, February figures for supermarket and department store sales, and March data for the manufacturing PMI from Nikkei.

The all industry index is expected to sink 1.8 percent on month after adding 0.5 percent in December. Supermarket sales added 0.6 percent on year in January and department store sales fell 1.2 percent. The manufacturing PMI score in February was 54.1.

Hong Kong will release Q4 numbers for current and capital account. In the previous three months, the current account showed a surplus of 57.98 billion HKD and the capital account had a deficit of 147 million HKD.