Taiwan Data Due On Friday

(RTTNews) - Taiwan is scheduled to release a batch of data on Friday, headlining a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. On tap are January figures for imports, exports, trade balance and consumer and wholesale prices.

In December, imports were up 28.1 percent on year and exports gained 23.4 percent on year for a trade surplus of $5.77 billion. Consumer prices were down 0.06 percent on month and up 2.62 percent on year, while wholesale prices jumped an annual 12.15 percent.

New Zealand will see January numbers for electronic retail card spending; in December, spending was up 0.4 percent on month and 4.2 percent on year.

Australia will provide its inflation forecast for February; in January, consumer prices were seen higher by 4.4 percent on year.

Finally, the markets in Japan are closed on Friday for National Foundation Day and will re-open on Monday.