Japan Industrial Production On Tap For Wednesday

(RTTNews) - Japan will on Wednesday release preliminary October figures for industrial production, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

Output is expected to be flat on month and down 1.3 percent on year after adding 0.6 percent on month and 1.5 percent on year in September.

Japan also will see October figures for vehicle production, housing starts and construction orders, as well as November results for the small business confidence index.

Vehicle production was up 1.4 percent on year in September, while construction orders jumped 16.3 percent. Housing starts are expected to spike 11.0 percent on year, up from 10.0 percent a month earlier. The business confidence index is expected to show a score of 48.0, down from 48.3 in October.

Australia will see October data for new home sales, private sector credit and building approvals. Home sales were up 2.7 percent on month in September, while private sector credit was up 0.4 percent on month and5.4 percent on year.

Building approvals are tipped to gain 2.0 percent on month and fall 6.2 percent on year after tumbling 8.7 percent on month and 6.4 percent on year in the previous month.

New Zealand will see November results for the business confidence survey from NBNZ; in October, the index had a score of 24.5, with an outlook score of 38.4.

Thailand will release Q3 numbers for current account and October figures for imports, exports and trade balance. In the second quarter, the current account surplus was $8.37 billion. In September, imports were worth $15.58 billion and exports were at $19.30 billion for a trade surplus of $3.72 billion.

Malaysia will provide October data for producer prices; in September, producer prices were up 1.8 percent on month and 0.4 percent on year.

South Korea will see October figures for industrial production and retail sales. In September, output was up 0.3 percent on month and down 2.0 percent on year, while retail sales fell 4.5 percent on month and gained 0.5 percent on year.