2018.04.2618:00:00UTC+00Bank Of Japan Rate Decision On Tap For Friday

The Bank of Japan will wrap up its monetary policy meeting on Friday and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The BoJ is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate steady at -0.10 percent.

Japan also will release March numbers for unemployment, retail sales, industrial production, construction orders and housing starts, as well as April figures for consumer prices.

The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 2.5 percent, while the job-to-applicant ratio is expected to tick up to 1.59 from 1.58 in February. Retail sales are tipped to be flat on month and climb 1.5 percent in year after adding 0.5 percent on month and 1.7 percent on year in the previous month.

Industrial production is expected to rise 0.5 percent on month and 2.0 percent on year after advancing 2.0 percent on month and 1.6 percent on year a month earlier. Housing starts are predicted to sink 4.8 percent on year after sliding 2.6 percent in the previous month.

Overall Tokyo inflation is tipped to add 0.8 percent on year, down from 1.0 percent in March. Core CPI is called steady at 0.8 percent.

New Zealand will release March figures for imports, exports and trade balance, and also see April results for the consumer confidence index from ANZ.

In February, imports were worth ND$4.24 billion and exports were at NZ$4.46 billion for a trade surplus of NZ$217 million. In March, the consumer confidence index added 0.2 percent to a score of 128.0.

Australia will provide Q1 numbers for producer prices; in the three months prior, producer prices added 0.6 percent on quarter and 1.7 percent on year.

Singapore will release March data for producer prices; in February, prices were up 0.6 percent on month and down 0.8 percent on year.