New Zealand building permits will kick off the calendar. We’ve already had data from NZ this morning:
Australia data follows, then from Japan.
Reserve Bank of New Zealand is hitting the speaking circuit still.
The focus for the session is on the official PMIs from China, from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Readings on these have been subdued. In December China’s official Manufacturing PMI came in showing its third straight month of contraction at 49.0, much worse than was expected. The Caixin Manufacturing PMI followed up with a surprise higher though.
China has two primary Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) surveys – the official PMI released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Caixin China PMI published by the media company Caixin and research firm Markit / S&P Global.
- The official PMI survey covers large and state-owned companies, while the Caixin PMI survey covers small and medium-sized enterprises. As a result, the Caixin PMI is considered to be a more reliable indicator of the performance of China’s private sector.
- Another difference between the two surveys is their methodology. The Caixin PMI survey uses a broader sample of companies than the official survey.
- Despite these differences, the two surveys often provide similar readings on China’s manufacturing sector.
- This snapshot from the ForexLive economic data calendar, access it here.
- The times in the left-most column are GMT.
- The numbers in the right-most column are the ‘prior’ (previous month/quarter as the case may be) result. The number in the column next to that, where there is a number, is the consensus median expected.