Japan GDP Data Due On Thursday

(RTTNews) - Japan will on Thursday release Q4 numbers for gross domestic product, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. GDP is expected to add 0.2 percent on quarter and 0.8 percent on year after slipping 0.3 percent on quarter and 1.0 percent on year in Q3.

Japan also will see January numbers for machine tool orders and February figures for M2 money stocks. In December, machine tool orders slumped 9.7 percent on year. In January, the M2 money stock was up 2.7 percent on year.

Australia will provide January numbers for building approvals, with forecasts suggesting a drop of 27.6 percent on month after jumping 15.3 percent in December.

China will see February figures for consumer and producer prices. Consumer prices are tipped to add 0.2 percent on month and 1.9 percent on year, slowing from 0.8 percent on month and 2.1 percent on year in January. Producer prices are expected to sink an annual 1.3 percent after slipping 0.8 percent in the previous month.

The central bank in Malaysia will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates. The bank is expected to keep its benchmark lending rate steady at 2.75 percent.

Malaysia will also release unemployment data for January; in December, the jobless rate was 3.6 percent.

Thailand will see February results for its consumer confidence index; in January, the index score was 51.7.