2021.06.2222:01:00UTC+00Bank Of Japan Minutes On Tap For Wednesday

The Bank of Japan will on Wednesday release the minutes from its monetary policy meeting on April 26-27, headlining a busy day in Asia-Pacific economic activity.

At the meeting the BoJ decided to keep its monetary stimulus unchanged, holding the benchmark interest rate steady at -0.1 percent. The bank also will continue to purchase Japanese government bonds without setting an upper limit so that 10-year JGB yields will remain at around zero percent. It also downgraded its near-term inflation forecast and raised its growth projections despite the ongoing Covid restrictions.

Japan also will see April results for its leading and coincident indexes and June results for the manufacturing, services and composite PMIs from Jibun Bank. In March, the leading index had a score of 102.4 and the coincident was at 92.9. In May, the manufacturing index was at 53.0, services was at 46.5 and composite was at 48.8.

Singapore will provide May numbers for consumer prices; in April, overall inflation was down 0.2 percent on month and up 2.1 percent on year, while core CPI rose an annual 0.6 percent.

Taiwan will release May figures for industrial production and retail sales; in April, output was up 13.62 percent on year and retail sales jumped an annual 18.27 percent.

Thailand will provide May numbers for imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are expected to surged 53.65 percent on year after jumping 29.79 percent in April. Exports are called higher by an annual 30.0 percent after climbing13.09 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $0.78 billion, up from $0.18 billion a month earlier.

Also, the central bank in Thailand will wrap up its monetary policy meeting and then announce its decision on interest rates. The bank is widely expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 0.50 percent.

The Philippines will see April figures for retail sales; in March, sales were up 1.8 percent on year.

Australia will see June results for the manufacturing, services and composite PMIs from Markit Economics; in May, their scores were 60.4, 58.0 and 58.0, respectively.