New Zealand Unemployment Data Due On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - New Zealand will on Wednesday release Q3 unemployment data, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

The jobless rate is tipped to climb to 5.4 percent, up from 4.0 percent in the three months prior. The employment change is pegged at -0.8 percent after showing -0.4 percent in the previous three months.

Australia will see October results for the Performance of Construction Index from the Australian Industry Group; in September, the index score was 45.2. Australia also will see final October numbers for the services and composite PMIs from market; the previous readings were 50.8 and 51.1, respectively.

Australia also will release September numbers for retail sales, with forecasts suggesting a decline of 1.5 percent following the 4.0 percent drop in August.

The Bank of Japan will release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on September 16 and 17. At the meeting, the BoJ maintained its massive monetary policy stimulus and slightly lifted its assessment about the economy after Yoshihide Suga took charge as new Prime Minister.

The Policy Board held the interest rate at -0.1 percent on current accounts that financial institutions maintain at the central bank. The bank also will continue to purchase necessary amount of Japanese government bonds without setting an upper limit so that 10-year JGB yields will remain at around zero percent.

China will see October results for the services and composite PMIs from Caixin; the previous readings were 54.8 and 54.5, respectively.

Hong Kong and Singapore will see October results for their private sector business PMIs from Markit; their previous readings were 47.7 and 45.1, respectively.

The Philippines will release September numbers for imports, exports and trade balance. In August, imports were down 22.6 percent on year, while exports dropped an annual 18.6 percent for a trade deficit of $2.075 billion.