Australia Unemployment On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - Australia will on Thursday release March numbers for unemployment, setting the pace for a busy day in Asia-Pacific economic activity.

The Australian economy is expected to add 2,500 jobs following the addition of 47,300 in February. The jobless rate is expected to rise to 6.1 percent from 6.0 percent, while the participation rate is called at 64.7 percent - down from 64.8 percent.

China will see March figures for imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are expected to rise 2.4 percent on year after climbing 10.1 percent in February. Exports are called higher by 4.0 percent after plunging 18.1 percent in the previous month. The trade balance is expected to show a surplus of $0.9 billion, up from the $23 billion deficit a month earlier.

Japan will provide February numbers for core machine orders and March data for bank lending. Core machine orders are expected to dip 3 percent on month and rise 17.5 percent on year after climbing 13.4 percent on month and 23.6 percent on year. Bank lending was up 2.4 percent on year in February.

Japan also will see March data for machine tool orders and Tokyo office vacancies. In February, they were up 26.1 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

The Bank of Korea will conclude its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates. The central bank is widely expected to keep rates on hold at 2.50 percent.

New Zealand will see March results for its Performance of Manufacturing Index from Business NZ; in February, the index saw a score of 56.2.