Bank Of Japan Minutes On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will on Thursday release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on January 17 and 18, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

At the meeting, the BoJ voted 8-1 to maintain its monetary policy stimulus unchanged at -0.1 percent on current accounts that financial institutions maintain at the central bank. It also lifted its inflation forecast for the next fiscal year, citing a rise in commodity prices.

The bank also said it will continue to purchase a necessary amount of Japanese government bonds without setting an upper limit so that 10-year JGB yields will remain at around zero percent.

Japan also will see March results for the manufacturing, services and composite indexes from Jibun Bank; in February, their scores were 45.8, 52.7 and 44.2, respectively.

Australia will see March results for the manufacturing, services and composite indexes from Markit Economics; in February, their scores were 57.0, 57.4 and 56.6, respectively.

The central bank in the Philippines 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 2.00 percent.

Taiwan will release unemployment data for February; in January, the jobless rate was 3.70 percent.

Thailand will provide February data for imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are predicted to rise 19.0 percent on year, slowing from 20.5 percent in January. Exports are called higher by an annual 10.4 percent, up from 8.0 percent in the previous month. The trade deficit is pegged at $1.5 billion following the $2.5 billion shortfall a month earlier.