(RTTNews) - Tuesday, the day started off in Asia with some downbeat data from Japan, the largest economy in the region.

Retail sales in Japan fell 0.4% year-on-year in September, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said. Sales declined for the first time in 14 months. The September result was worse than the flat reading that was expected. The decline followed a 0.7% increase in August. Sales among large-scale retailers were down for the sixth consecutive month, easing 3.3% year-on-year. The decline was bigger than the 2.7% fall forecast by economists.

Singapore’s economic growth could see further slippage in the quarters ahead in the wake of global financial market turbulence challenging the economy, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in its twice-yearly macroeconomic review. The central bank forecast the economy to expand around 3% in 2008. Further, the economy is expected to grow below its potential rate in 2009.

Late Monday, the Bank of Israel slashed its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.5%. This was the second rate cut this month. On October 7, the central bank had lowered the rate by 50 basis points out-of-schedule. The central bank expects the global slowdown to result in a slowdown in Israel’s rate of economic growth.

A report from the Bank of Korea showed that the consumer confidence in South Korea fell to 88 in October from 96 in the previous month. This was the lowest reading since July when the index stood at 84.

The Pakistan government’s bond rating was lowered to B3 from B2 and kept the ratings on review for downgrade, the Moody’s Investors Service reported. The Moody’s had lowered the outlook to negative from stable in September.

The Philippine production index in value terms grew 12.7% year-on-year in August compared with a revised 14.2% growth in July, the National Statistics Office said. In volume terms, it rose 6.5% compared with a revised 8% rise in the previous month.

Macau’s unemployment rate increased slightly to 3.1% in the July to September period from 3% in the June-August period, the results of the Employment Survey released by the Statistics and Census Service showed. On a yearly basis, however, the jobless rate remained unchanged at 3.1%.

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