BoJ Minutes On Tap For Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will on Wednesday release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on January 30 and 31, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

At the meeting, the bank voted to maintain the central bank's target of raising the amount of outstanding Japan government bond holdings at an annual pace of about JPY 80 trillion.

The BoJ board also decided to maintain the -0.1 percent interest rate on current accounts that financial institutions maintain at the bank.

Japan also will see February figures for imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are expected to add 1.3 percent on year after jumping 8.5 percent in January. Exports are called higher by an annual 10.1 percent after rising 1.3 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at 807.2 billion yen following the 1,086.9 billion yen deficit a month earlier.

In addition, Japan will see January results for the all industry activity index and February numbers for store sales.

The all industry activity index is expected to be flat on month after slipping 0.3 percent in December. Supermarket sales were down 1.6 percent on year in January, while department store sales fell 1.2 percent.

Australia will provide February numbers for the Westpac leading economic index; in January, the index was flat on month.

Taiwan will release February numbers for unemployment, with the jobless rate expected to rise to 3.84 percent from 3.82 percent in January.

Malaysia will see February figures for consumer prices; in January, inflation was up 1.1 percent on month and 3.2 percent on year.