Australia Rate Decision On Tap For Tuesday

(RTTNews) - The Reserve Bank of Australia will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The RBA is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate steady at 4.10 percent.

The Bank of Japan will release Q1 results of its quarterly Tankan survey. The large manufacturers index is expected to see a score of +12, down from +14 in the previous three month. The outlook is expected to slip to +9 from +13. Large all-industry capex was up 11.3 percent in the previous quarter.

Japan also will see February numbers for unemployment, with forecasts expecting the jobless rate (2.5 percent) and the jobs-to-applicant ratio (1.26) to remain unchanged.

South Korea will see March figures for imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are expected to rise 2.3 percent on year, up from 0.2 percent in February. Exports are called higher by an annual 3.5 percent, up from 0.7 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus if pegged at $6.10 billion, up from $4.15 billion a month earlier.

Indonesia will provide March numbers for consumer prices; in February, overall inflation was down 0.48 percent on month and 0.09 percent on year, while core CPI climbed an annual 2.48 percent.

Several of the regional nations will see March results for their respective manufacturing PMIs from S&P Global, including Australia, Japan (Jibun), South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and China (Caixin).

Finally, the markets in Malaysia and Indonesia remain closed for Eid-ul-Fitr.