TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - Japan is scheduled to release a raft of data on Monday, highlighting a busy day for Asian economic news. On tap are October figures for imports, exports, trade balance and convenience store sales, as well as September numbers for its leading, coincident and all-industry activity indexes.
Imports are expected to jump 15.8 percent on year after adding 12.1 percent in September. Exports are called higher by 1.1 percent following the 2.4 percent increase in the previous month. The trade balance is expected to show a surplus of 28.8 billion yen, down from the 300.4 billion yen surplus a month earlier. Convenience store sales saw an annual contraction of 4.0 percent in September.
The all-industry activity index is expected to contract 1.0 percent on month after easing 0.5 percent in August. Little change is expected for the final readings of the leading and coincident indexes, which saw preliminary scores of 91.6 and 88.9, respectively.
Also, the Bank of Japan is scheduled to release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on October 27. At the meeting, the policy board enhanced monetary easing by lifting the asset purchase program to JPY 55 trillion from JPY 50 trillion. The central bank retained its benchmark uncollateralized overnight call rate at around 0-0.1 percent by a unanimous vote.
Singapore will release final gross domestic product numbers for the third quarter of 2011. Analysts are expecting GDP to rise 2 percent on quarter and 6.1 percent on year, both up from last month's preliminary reading for a 1.3 percent quarterly gain and a 5.9 percent annual jump.
Thailand will provide gross domestic product numbers for the third quarter of 2011. Forecasts suggest an expansion of 4.5 percent on year following the 2.6 percent increase in the second quarter.
Taiwan will release October numbers for export orders and Q3 figures for current account. Orders are expected to rise 3.8 percent on year after adding 2.72 percent in September. The current account saw a surplus of $9.02 billion in the second quarter.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX