2022.05.1822:00:00UTC+00Australia Unemployment Data On Tap For Thursday

Australia will on Thursday release April jobless figures, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

The jobless rate is expected to dip to 3.9 percent from 4.0 percent in March, with the addition of 30,000 jobs following the gain of 17,900 jobs in the previous month.

Japan will release March figures for core machine orders and April data for imports, exports and trade balance. Machine orders are expected to rise 3.7 percent both on month and on year after sinking 9.8 percent on month and rising 4.3 percent on year in February.

Imports are predicted to surge 35 percent on year, up from 31.2 percent in March. Exports are called higher by an annual 13.8 percent, easing from 14.7 percent in the previous month. The trade deficit is pegged at 1,150 billion yen following the 412.4 billion yen shortfall a month earlier.

The central bank in the Philippines will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates; the bank is expected to hike its benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points, from 2.00 percent to 2.25 percent.

Hong Kong will release April figures for unemployment; in March, the jobless rate was 5.0 percent.

New Zealand will see Q1 results for producer prices; in the previous three months, input prices were up 1.1 percent on quarter and output prices rose 1.4 percent.