CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Malaysia is on Wednesday scheduled to release consumer price index data for February, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The inflation rate is expected to come in at 2.3 percent, easing from 2.7 percent in January.
Thailand's central bank will conclude its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates, with analysts widely expecting the bank to keep rates on hold at 3.00 percent. Thailand also will release further data sometime this week, including January figures for imports, exports and trade balance.
Australia will see the results of the Westpac leading index for January, plus the DEWR count on skilled vacancies for February. The leading index was up 0.5 percent on month in December, while vacancies eased 0.6 percent in January.
New Zealand will provide February figures for credit card spending; it was up 3.1 percent on year and 0.8 percent on month in January.
Japan will release January data for its all-industry activity index, as well as February figures for convenience store sales. The industry index is tipped to ease 0.7 percent on month after rising 1.3 percent in December. Convenience store sales added 1.7 percent on year in January.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX