Australia Unemployment Data Due On Thursday

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

The jobless rate is expected to hold steady at 5.1 percent, with the addition of 18,000 jobs following the increase of 37,000 in November. The participation rate is called unchanged at 65.7 percent.

New Zealand will see December results for credit card spending; in November, credit card spending was up 0.4 percent on month and 6.1 percent on year.

Japan will see final November numbers for its leading and coincident indexes, as well as preliminary January data for the manufacturing PMI from Nikkei.

The previous reading for the leading index suggested a score of 99.3, while the coincident was at 103.0. The manufacturing PMI had a score of 52.6 in December.

The central bank in Malaysia will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates. The central is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 3.25 percent.