South Korea Trade Data On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - South Korea will on Thursday see February numbers for imports, exports and trade balance, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

Imports are expected to rise 12 percent on year after gaining 20.9 percent in January. Exports are called higher by 0.5 percent after surging 22.2 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $2.391 billion, down from $3.721 billion a month earlier.

Indonesia will release February figures for consumer prices. In January, inflation was up 0.62 percent on month and 3.25 percent on year, while core CPI gained an annual 2.69 percent.

Australia will see February results for the Performance of Manufacturing Index from AiG and the commodity price index from the Reserve Bank of Australia.

In January, the manufacturing index had a score of 58.7, while the commodity price index eased 0.6 percent on year to a score of 135.3.

China will see February results for the manufacturing PMI from Caixin, with forecasts suggesting a score of 51.3 - down from 51.5 in January.

Japan will provide Q4 numbers for capital spending and also see February results for vehicle sales and its consumer confidence index.

Capex is expected to rise 3.0 percent, slowing from 4.2 percent in the three months prior. Excluding software, capex is tipped to gain 2.7 percent after rising 4.3 percent in Q3.

Vehicle sales skidded 5.7 percent on year in January, while the consumer confidence index is tipped to show a score of 44.8 - up from 44.7 a month earlier.

A number of Asia-Pacific countries will see February results for their respective manufacturing PMIs from Nikkei, including Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Finally, the markets in South Korea and Thailand are closed on Thursday for Independence Movement Day and Macha Bucha Day, respectively. They will re-open on Friday.