2020.03.3122:00:00UTC+00RBA Minutes On Tap For Wednesday

The Reserve Bank of Australia will on Wednesday release the minutes from its emergency meeting on March 19, highlighting a busy day in Asia-Pacific economic activity.

At the meeting, the RBA cut its key interest rates further to a record low 0.25 percent from 0.50 percent and launched a money printing scheme as the spread of Covid-19 continued to disrupt economic activity and financial markets around the world.

Australia also will see March results for building approvals, the RBA's commodity price index and the Performance of Manufacturing Index from the Australian Industry Group.

Building approvals are tipped to rise 3.0 percent on month after plunging 15.3 percent in February. The commodity index saw a reading of 120.7 in the previous month and the manufacturing index was at 44.3.

The Bank of Japan will release its quarterly Tankan Survey, with capex expected to slow to 2.5 percent from 6.8 percent in the three months prior. The large manufacturing index is tipped to show a score of -10, down from 0 - while the outlook is pegged at -15 from 0.

Japan also will see final March numbers for the manufacturing PMI from Nikkei; the previous reading was 44.8.

China will see March results for the manufacturing index from Caixin, with forecasts suggesting a score of 45.0 - up from 40.3.

Indonesia will provide March data for consumer prices; in February, overall inflation was up 0.3 percent on month and 3.0 percent on year, while core CPI rose an annual 2.8 percent.

Finally, several of the regional countries will see March results for their respective manufacturing PMIs from HIS Markit, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.