Australia Unemployment Data Due On Thursday

(RTTNews) - Australia will on Thursday release January figures for unemployment, highlighting a busy for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The jobless rate is expected to hold steady at 3.5 percent, with the addition of 20,000 jobs following the loss of 14,600 in December. The participation rate is called steady at 66.6 percent.

Japan will see December figures for core machine orders and January trade data. Machine orders are expected to rose 3.0 percent on month and slip 6.0 percent on year after dropping 8.3 percent on month and 3.7 percent on year in November.

Imports are expected to jumped 18.4 percent on year after spiking 20.7 percent in December. Exports are called higher by an annual 0.8 percent after expanding 11.5 percent in the previous month. The trade deficit is pegged at 3,871.5 billion yen following the 1,451.8 billion yen shortfall a month earlier.

China will provide January numbers for house prices; in December, prices were down 1.5 percent on year.

Hong Kong will see January figures for unemployment in December, the jobless rate was 3.5 percent.

The central bank in Indonesia 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 unchanged at 5.75 percent.