BoJ Minutes On Tap For Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will on Wednesday release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on April 7 and 8, highlighting a busy day in Asia-Pacific economic activity.

At the meeting, the BoJ kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0 to 0.10 percent, while also continuing to expand the monetary base at an annual pace of about 60 to 70 trillion yen.

Japan also will see April results for the services and composite PMIs from Markit Economics; in March, they saw scores of 52.2 and 52.8, respectively.

New Zealand will release Q1 numbers for unemployment and average hourly earnings. The unemployment rate is expected to ease to 5.9 percent from 6.0 percent in the previous three months. Earnings are tipped to rise 1.0 percent on quarter after adding 0.3 percent in Q4.

Australia will provide March numbers for retail sales, plus April results for the AiG Performance of Construction Index. Retail sales are expected to rise 0.4 percent on month after gaining 0.2 percent in February. The construction index saw a score of 46.2 in March.

China will see April results for the services and composite indexes from HSBC; in March, they saw scores of 51.9 and 49.3, respectively.

Malaysia will release March figures for imports, exports and trade balance. In February, imports were worth 48.5 billion ringgit and exports were at 58.9 billion ringgit for a trade surplus of 10.4 billion ringgit.