China Data On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - China is scheduled to release a raft of data on Thursday, highlighting an otherwise light day for Asian-Pacific economic activity. On tap are Q1 figures for gross domestic product and March data for industrial production, retail sales, fixed asset investment and unemployment.

GDP is expected to rise 1.4 percent on quarter and 4.8 percent on year after adding 1.2 percent on quarter and 4.5 percent on year in the previous three months. Industrial production is expected to slow to an annual 5.3 percent from 6.3 percent in February.

Retail sales are called higher by 2.5 percent on year, easing from 2.8 percent in the previous month. FAI is tipped to add 2.0 percent on year, up from 1.8 percent a month earlier. The jobless rate is tipped to ease to 5.2 percent from 5.3 percent in February.

Australia will see March numbers for unemployment, with the jobless rate expected to hold steady at 4.3 percent. The Australian economy is tipped to add 17.9K jobs after gaining 48.9K jobs in February.