Korea Rate Decision On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Korea will conclude its monetary policy meeting on Thursday and then announce its decision on interest rates, setting the pace for a busy day in Asia-Pacific economic news.

The BoK is widely expected to keep rates on hold at 2.50 percent.

The central bank in Indonesia also will reveal its decision on interest rates; it is expected to hold steady at 7.50 percent.

Japan will release January figures for core machine orders, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 7.1 percent on month and 18.9 percent on year. That follows the 15.7 percent monthly decline and the 6.7 percent annual increase in December.

Australia will provide unemployment data for February, with analysts expecting the jobless rate to hold steady at 6.0 percent. The economy is expected to have added 15,000 jobs after shedding 3,700 in January.

China will see February numbers for industrial production, retail sales and fixed asset investment. Industrial production is expected to rise 9.5 percent, slowing from 9.7 percent in January. Retail sales are tipped to climb 13.5 percent, accelerating from 13.1 percent in the previous month. FAI is called at 19.4 percent, down from 19.6 percent a month earlier.

Hong Kong will release Q4 numbers for industrial production and producer prices; in Q3, they were down 0.9 percent on year and 5.2 percent on year, respectively.