Weekly Outlook

Friday’s (9 Jun) focus will be China’s CPI inflation & PPI while the potentially more provocative N. Korean missile tests will keep markets’ attention on geo-politics, especially as it could come ahead of Kim Jong-Il Initiation Day (19 Jun) which is a North Korean holiday. This is a full work week for Asia except for Australia, Philippines & Malaysia which are closed on Monday (12 Jun) for their respective holidays. Bank Indonesia (BI) is the only major Asian central bank with a monetary policy decision this week and BI is expected to stay unchanged while China’s data will still be in focus for this new week as we will get the May money supply and loans financing data (10-15 Jun), May retail sales (14 Jun), May FAI (14 Jun), May IP (14 Jun), and May FX Net settlement data (16 Jun). The final 1Q GDP data will be in focus for New Zealand (15 Jun) while Australia’s major data will be the May employment report which is also released on the same day. There is the 3Q Manpower survey for the major Asian economies including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore (all on 12 Jun) and China (13 Jun). There is also May trade data for Indonesia (15 Jun).