Japan Inflation Data On Tap For Friday

(RTTNews) - Japan is on Friday scheduled to release January figures for consumer prices, headlining a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

Overall inflation is expected to gain 0.7 percent on year, slowing from 0.8 percent in December. Core CPI is tipped to gain an annual 0.8 percent, up from 0.7 percent in the previous month.

Japan also will see February readings for the manufacturing PMI from Jibun Bank and the services and composite PMIs from Nikkei. In January, the manufacturing PMI had a score of 48.8, while the services PMI was at 51.0 and the composite came in at 50.1.

Japan also will see December data for the all industry activity index, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 0.3 percent on month - slowing from 0.9 percent in the previous month.

Malaysia will see January figures for consumer prices; in December, inflation was up 0.2 percent on month and 1.0 percent on year.