BoJ Minutes On Tap For Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will on Wednesday release the minutes from its September 18 monetary policy meeting, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

At the meeting, the Japanese central bank left its key interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent, as expected, but surprised markets with a decision to reduce the holdings of its massive stock of exchange-traded funds, suggesting that the monetary policy normalization is underway.

Japan also will see October figures for its monetary base, with forecasts suggesting a decline of 5.0 percent on year following the 6.1 percent drop in September.

New Zealand will release Q3 unemployment data, with forecasts suggesting an employment increase of 0.1 percent on quarter and a jobless rate of 5.3 percent. In Q2, employment slipped 0.1 percent, with an unemployment rate of 5.2 percent.

Australia will see October results for the manufacturing and construction indexes from AiG; in September, they were at -13.2 and +12.3, respectively.

Indonesia will provide Q3 data for gross domestic product; in the previous three months, GDP was up 4.04 percent on quarter and 5.12 percent on year.

Thailand will release October inflation numbers; in September, overall inflation was down 0.72 percent on year, while core CPI rose an annual 0.65 percent.

Singapore will provide September figures for retail sales; in August, sales were up 0.5 percent on month and 5.2 percent on year.

Finally, some regions will see PMI data from S&P Global, including Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and China.