South Korea GDP On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - South Korea will on Thursday release preliminary figures for Q4 gross domestic product, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

The Korean economy is expected to have expanded 1.0 percent on quarter and 4.0 percent on year after gaining 1.1 percent on quarter and 3.3 percent on year in Q3.

The Bank of Japan will conclude its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates; the bank is widely expected to keep rates on hold at 0 to 0.10 percent. The BoJ also release the January edition of its monthly economic report.

The central bank of the Philippines also will conclude its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates. The bank is widely expected to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.50 percent.

China will see January results for the HSBC/Markit flash manufacturing PMI, plus December numbers for the leading and coincident indexes from the Conference Board.

The manufacturing PMI is expected to show a score of 50.4, down from 50.5 in December but continuing to show expansion. The leading index was up 1.4 percent in November, while the coincident added 0.8 percent.

Australia will release consumer inflation expectations for January; in December, it was called higher by 2.1 percent.

New Zealand will see January results for the consumer confidence index from ANZ; in December, the index added 0.8 percent to a score of 129.4.

Singapore will provide December data for consumer prices, with analysts looking for an increase of 0.5 percent on month and 2.2 percent on year. That follows the 0.7 percent monthly increase and the 2.6 percent yearly gain in November.