Monday’s Asia-Pacific economic schedule is relatively light, with Hong Kong’s latest production and price figures drawing the most attention from market watchers.
Hong Kong is set to release its second-quarter figures for both industrial production and producer prices, giving investors a fresh read on the city’s manufacturing sector health.
In the prior quarter, industrial output climbed 3.1 percent on a year-over-year basis, pointing to modest but steady expansion in Hong Kong’s production activity.
Producer prices told a more dramatic story in that same period, surging 17.7 percent annually, a figure that signals persistent upstream cost pressures across the economy.
New Zealand will also contribute to Monday’s data flow, with the release of August results for the Performance of Services Index compiled by BusinessNZ.
The New Zealand services index registered a score of 50.6 in July, sitting just above the 50-point threshold that separates expansion from contraction in the sector.
Japan will issue revised industrial production figures for July, with analysts expecting no change from the preliminary reading that was released earlier.
The preliminary Japanese data showed a monthly increase of 0.1 percent in production output, alongside a more notable 4.1 percent rise in capacity utilization for the same period.
China rounds out the Monday data calendar with August figures covering new loans extended across the economy and the broader M2 money supply measure.
New loan growth in China is forecast to reach CNY480.0 billion for August, a sharp reversal from the CNY340.0 billion contraction recorded during the month of July.
China’s M2 money supply is expected to show annual growth of 7.6 percent in August, representing a slight cooling from the 7.7 percent rate posted in the previous month.
The combination of loan and money supply data from China will be closely watched, as investors look for signs of whether Beijing’s credit conditions are tightening or stabilizing heading into the final months of the year.
