Japan Data On Tap For Friday

(RTTNews) - Japan will release a raft of data on Friday, headlining a busy day in Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are March numbers for inflation, unemployment, household spending and labor cash earnings - as well as April data for vehicle sales and the manufacturing PMI from Markit Economics.

Consumer prices are expected to hold steady at 2.2 percent on year, while core CPI is tipped to stay at 2.0 percent. The jobless rate is called unchanged at 3.5 percent, while household spending is expected to tumble 11.8 percent on year after falling 2.9 percent in February.

Labor cash earnings are expected to add 0.4 percent on year after gaining 0.1 percent in the previous month. Vehicle sales dropped an annual 13.1 percent in March, while the PMI score was 49.7 a month earlier.

China will see April scores for its official manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs. The manufacturing PMI is expected to show a score of 50.0, down from 50.1 in March - when the non-manufacturing PMI came in at 53.7.

Australia will provide Q1 numbers for producer prices, plus April figures for the AiG Performance of Manufacturing Index and the RBA's commodity price index.

Producer prices in Q4 were up 0.1 percent on quarter and 1.1 percent on year, while the commodity price index plummeted an annual 19.7 percent in March to a reading of 83.7. The manufacturing index had a score of 46.3 in March.

South Korea will see April numbers for consumer prices, imports, exports and trade balance. Inflation is expected to hold steady at 0.4 percent on year, while imports are tipped to fall an annual 14.3 percent after tumbling 15.3 percent in March. Exports are called lower by an annual 6.6 percent after dipping 4.3 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is expected to be $7.15 billion, down from $8.381 billion a month earlier.

Thailand will release April numbers for inflation, with overall CPI expected to fall 0.8 percent on year after dipping 0.57 percent in March. Core CPI is expected to add 1.14 percent after gaining 1.31 percent in the previous month.

Finally, many of the regional markets are closed on Friday for the Labor Day holiday, including South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.