Asian stocks climb on Yellen remarks Thursday 02:15 GMT. Asian markets pushed higher after comments from the nominee for US Federal Reserve chairman suggested sustained monetary stimulus measures for the world's largest economy. In her Senate hearing on Thursday in the US, Janet Yellen will emphasise that the US economy has fallen short of its potential and unemployment remained "too high," in what many analysts believe is indicative of continued stimulus from the country's central bank, according to prepared testimony. "We have made good progress, but we have farther to go to regain the ground lost in the crisis and the recession," she will say. Japan's blue-chip Nikkei 225 index rose 1.4 per cent while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.9 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.5 per cent. That followed a reversal of fortunes for the S&P 500 in New York, which recovered from an early bout of weakness to close 0.8 per cent stronger at a record high as rumours spread that Janet Yellen's introductory remarks would be bullish for stocks. The Japanese equity market was also boosted by third-quarter GDP figures that showed the economy expanded at an annual pace of 1.9 per cent in the three months to September - roughly half that recorded a quarter earlier but ahead of analyst forecasts. Growth in the world's third-largest economy was slowed by slackening consumer demand as well as weakening exports. "Real exports dropped but real imports continued to increase," Credit Suisse economist Hiromichi Shirakawa said. Material real depreciation of the yen has not been effective in weakening imports. Many economists anticipate a pick-up in economic activity in Japan in the fourth quarter as consumer demand rises ahead of an increase in the sales tax. On Thursday, the yen weakened 0.2 per cent to Y99.44 to the US dollar. The Bank of Korea kept its policy rate on hold for the sixth consecutive month, as expected, at 2.5 per cent, in light of improving economic data. "Gross domestic product data released last month showed the economy grew by 3.3 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter - the strongest pace of expansion since the final quarter of 2011," said Gareth Leather, economist at Capital Economics. Other more recent data support the view that the economy is moving slowly in the right direction. The Kospi Composite advanced 0.3 per cent, even as many securities houses declined after regulators ended a five-year ban on short selling of financial stocks.