BoJ Minutes On Tap For Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will on Wednesday release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on July 14 and 15, highlighting a modest day in Asia-Pacific activity.

At the meeting, the policy board decided to maintain its target of raising the monetary base at an annual pace of about JPY 80 trillion. Also, the bank lowered its growth outlook for this year to 1.7 percent from 2 percent.

Japan also will see final June numbers for tertiary industry and industrial production, plus July figures for domestic corporate goods prices.

The tertiary industry index is expected to add 0.2 percent on month after slipping 0.7 percent in May. Goods prices are tipped to fall 0.1 percent on month and 2.9 percent on year after losing 0.2 percent on month and 2.4 percent on year in June.

Australia will release Q2 numbers for wage costs, June figures for credit card purchases and August results for the Westpac consumer confidence index.

Wages are expected to add 0.6 percent on quarter and 2.3 percent on year after gaining 0.5 percent on quarter and 2.3 percent on year.

In May, credit card balances were worth A$51.3 billion and purchases were at A$23.5 billion. The Westpac index was down 3.2 percent in July to a score of 92.2.

China will release July data for industrial production, retail sales and fixed asset investment. Production is expected to add 6.6 percent on year after rising 6.8 percent in June. Retail sales are called steady at 10.6 percent, and FAI is tipped to inch up to 11.5 percent from 11.4 percent in the previous month.

South Korea will release unemployment numbers for July, with the jobless rate expected to dip to 3.8 percent from 3.9 percent in June.

Finally, the markets in Thailand are closed on Wednesday in observance of the Queen's birthday, and will re-open on Thursday.