Japan Trade Data On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - Japan will on Thursday release January figures for imports, exports and trade balance, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

Imports are expected to fall 4.9 percent on year after adding 1.9 percent in December. Exports are called higher by 13.5 percent after jumped 12.8 percent in the previous month. The trade balance is expected to reflect a deficit of 1,681.3 billion yen following the 665.2 billion yen shortfall a month earlier.

Japan also will see December numbers for its all industry activity index, as well as its leading and coincident indexes - plus January results for nationwide and Tokyo department store sales.

The all activity index is tipped to ease 0.3 percent on month after adding 0.1 percent in November. The leading index was at 105.2 in November, while the coincident was at 110.7. Tokyo department store sales gained 0.3 percent on year in December, while nationwide sales dipped 1.7 percent.

New Zealand will release Q4 numbers for producer prices; in the third quarter, PPI inputs were down 1.5 percent on quarter and outputs fell 1.1 percent.

New Zealand also will see February results for the consumer confidence index from ANZ; in January, the index gained 1.9 percent on month to a score of 128.9.

Finally, a number of the regional markets are closed on Thursday for the Lunar New Year holiday, including China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.