Thai Trade Balance On Tap For Tuesday

(RTTNews) - Thailand will on Tuesday release February numbers for imports, exports, trade balance and current account, setting the pace for a busy day in Asia-Pacific economic activity.

In January, imports were down 14.8 percent, while exports were down 2.6 percent, the trade balance was a surplus of $1.392 billion and the current account surplus was $2.506 billion.

Hong Kong will see February data for retail sales - which were down 13.9 percent on year by volume and down 14.6 percent on year by value in January.

Japan will provide February results for housing starts, construction orders, vehicle production, labor cash earnings and loans and discounts.

Housing starts are expected to drop 7.0 percent on year to 877,000 after tumbling 13.0 percent on year in January to 864,000. Construction orders surged 27.5 percent on year in January.

Vehicle production shed 9.7 percent on year in January, while labor cash earnings added an annual 1.3 percent. Loans and discounts advanced 2.91 percent in the previous month.

Australia will release February data for new home sales and private sector credit. New home sales were up 1.9 percent on month in January. Private sector credit is tipped to add 0.5 percent on month and 6.3 percent on year after collecting 0.6 percent on month and 6.2 percent on year a month earlier.

New Zealand will see February figures for building permits and March results for business confidence. Building permits were down 3.8 percent on month in January, while the business confidence index had a score of 34.4 in February.