Asian markets will get key economic signals this week that could determine monetary policy in the continent's two biggest economies - retail sales and industrial production and house prices from China, and Japanese GDP and inflation.
The wider market mood will likely be one of caution after last week - the Nasdaq posted its first back-to-back weekly decline of the year, and the MSCI Asia ex-Japan equity index lost 2 per cent on its way to a one-month low. Investors are wondering how long Beijing will resist pressure to inject any kind of stimulus into an economy that is now officially in deflation with the weakest credit impulse since 2009.Investors and the Bank of Japan, meanwhile, will be paying close attention to Japanese inflation data later in the week. Economists polled by Reuters expect the annual rate of core CPI inflation to slow to 3.1 per cent in July from 3.3 per cent in June.