Bank Of Japan Minutes On Tap For Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Bank of Japan will on Thursday release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on July 30-31, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

At the meeting, the BoJ maintained its interest rate and lifted its inflation outlook citing the rise in food prices. The policy board unanimously decided to hold the uncollateralized overnight call rate to remain at around 0.5 percent. Previously, the bank had raised the benchmark rate to the current level from 0.25 percent in January.

Japan also will see August data for producer prices, with forecasts suggesting no change on an annual basis at 2.9 percent.

Hong Kong will provide August numbers for imports, exports and trade balance; in July, imports were up 16.5 percent on year and exports rose an annual 14.3 percent for a trade deficit of HKD34.1 billion.