Japan Data On Tap For Tuesday

(RTTNews) - Japan is scheduled to release a raft of data on Tuesday, headlining a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are December figures for unemployment, industrial production, retail sales and housing starts, plus January results for its household confidence index.

The jobless rate is expected to hold steady at 2.5 percent, while the jobs-to-applicant ratio is expected to tick up to 1.36 from 1.35. Industrial production is expected to slip 1.2 percent on month after adding 0.2 percent in November. Retail sales are tipped to rise 3.0 percent on year, up from 2.5 percent in the previous month.

Housing starts are tipped to add 0.5 percent on year after sinking 1.4 percent in November. The household confidence index is pegged at 30.5, up marginally from 30.3 in December.

Australia will see December data for housing credit, private sector credit and retail sales. In November, housing credit was up 0.4 percent on month, private sector credit added 0.5 percent on month and retail sales rose 1.4 percent.

South Korea will provide December numbers for industrial production and retail sales. Industrial production is expected to fall 0.2 percent on month and 5.1 percent on year after adding 0.4 percent on month and shedding 3.7 percent on year in November. Retail sales were down 1.8 percent on month in November.

Taiwan will release December figures for export orders, with forecasts suggesting a decline of 11.2 percent on year following the 23.4 percent contraction in November.

Thailand will see December results for imports, exports, trade balance and current account. In November, imports were up 8.2 percent on year and exports were down an annual 5.5 percent for a trade surplus of $0.50 billion. The current account showed a deficit of $0.400 billion.