2021.03.3122:00:00UTC+00BoJ Tankan Survey On Tap For Thursday

The Bank of Japan will release its quarterly Tankan Survey of business sentiment on Thursday, headlining a busy day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

The large manufacturers index is expected to see a score of 0 after showing -10 in the previous three months. The outlook is tipped to improve to +4 from -10. All-industry capex is seen higher by 1.4 percent, up from -1.2 percent in the previous three months.

South Korea will provide March figures for imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are expected to jump 17.5 percent on year after rising 13.9 percent in February. Exports are called higher by an annual 16.2 percent after gaining 9.5 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus in February was $2.71 billion.

Australia will release February figures for imports, exports, trade balance, retail sales and home loans, as well as March results for the manufacturing PMI from the Australian Industry Group.

In January, imports were down 2.0 percent on month and exports were up 6.0 percent for a trade surplus of A$10.142 billion. Retail sales were up 0.3 percent on month and home loans were up 10.9 percent. The manufacturing PMI score in February was 58.8.

Indonesia will provide March figures for consumer prices, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 0.14 percent on month and 1.4 percent on year following the 0.1 percent monthly increase and the 1.38 percent yearly gain in February. Core CPI is tipped to add 1.44 percent on year, slowing from 1.53 percent a month earlier.

Finally, a number of regional nations will see March results for their respective manufacturing PMIs from Markit Economics, including Australia, China (Caixin), Indonesia, Japan (Jibun), Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.