On Friday, Japan is set to unveil a series of economic data, marking a relatively calm day for Asia-Pacific's financial activity. The information to be revealed includes January's figures for household spending, current account, and leading and coincident indexes, as well as February's bank lending and eco watchers survey results.
Household expenditure is anticipated to increase by 0.4% monthly, but decrease by 4.1% annually, following a 0.9% monthly decline and a 2.5% annual decrease in December. There are predictions that the current account will show a 330 billion yen deficit, a sharp contrast to the prior month's 744 billion yen surplus.
The leading index reported a month-on-month increase of 2.1%, while the coincident index rose 1.3% in December. Overall, bank lending is projected to rise by 3.2% annually, a slight uptick from January's 3.1%. Expectations for the eco watchers survey suggests a score of 50.6, up from 50.2 a month ago.
In South Korea, January's current account figures are due for release. The country reported a current account surplus of $7.41 billion in December.
Meanwhile, Taiwan is set to report February's trade balance, import and export figures. In January, the country saw a 19.0% annual increase in imports and an 18.1% annual rise in exports, leading to a trade surplus of $2.49 billion.
