Japan Economics Weekly 2.5% inflation, border to reopen to tourists in June Despite a huge pot of excess savings accumulated over the past couple of years, today’s 2.5% inflation print for April is likely to slow the post-Omicron recovery by spooking consumers not used to... 6th May 2022 · 5 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly BoJ still likely to tweak Yield Curve Control The Bank of Japan remained under pressure to defend its yield target this week and pledged on Thursday to keep buying an unlimited amount of bonds for as long as necessary. While 10-year JGB yields... 29th April 2022 · 3 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Fresh yen & bond market turmoil, poor growth outlook The Bank of Japan had to step in yet again to defend its 10-year yield target this week, but it didn’t have to go to the same lengths as in late-March to keep yields in check. With yields nailed to... 22nd April 2022 · 6 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Coal, cautious consumers, the BoJ starts to relax Japan’s ban on Russian coal is unlikely to lift domestic energy prices much given that coal import prices closely track the Newcastle spot price which have fallen sharply over the past month. A bigger... 14th April 2022 · 6 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Large current account surplus not a thing of the past Surging import prices and depressed services exports have shrunk down Japan’s current account surplus to near zero over the past year. However, we expect a large surplus to return over the next couple... 8th April 2022 · 5 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Investor rebellions getting harder for BoJ to put down The Bank of Japan had to go to unprecedented lengths to push 10-year yields back down into its ±0.25% tolerance band this week. If this week’s rate of JGB purchases were sustained through April, the... 1st April 2022 · 5 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Support measures won’t prevent inflation reaching 2% The government is preparing fresh support measures to lower prices of petroleum products, which will reduce the drag on household incomes and will prevent inflation from breaching 2% for now. We still... 25th March 2022 · 8 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Supply chain disruption could take the gloss off Q2 All domestic restrictions will be removed on Monday after two-and-a-half months of quasi-states of emergency covering most of the economy. Our assumption is that Japan – as PM Kishida hopes – will now... 18th March 2022 · 4 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Soaring energy prices will slow consumption growth In our base case, soaring energy prices and pass-through of higher energy input costs to manufactured goods will knock off 1.5%-pts from households’ disposable income. While the still high savings... 11th March 2022 · 6 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly BoJ may get less dovish, GDP to fall in Q1 PM Kishida’s two new Bank of Japan policy board nominations could push the Bank in a slightly less dovish direction, but it won’t make much difference to policy decisions over the next year. A more... 4th March 2022 · 5 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Fossil fuel reliance, Japanese banks in Russia The recent spike in energy prices has highlighted just how reliant Japan still is on imported energy. Renewable energy production will need to be ramped up significantly to shield the economy from... 25th February 2022 · 6 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Vaccine boost, surging manufacturing profits Services spending finally showed signs of life last quarter, underlining that the vaccine boost is finally filtering through. Another reason to be confident about the outlook is that consumer price... 18th February 2022 · 3 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly BoJ sets its stall out, three more weeks of restrictions The Bank of Japan’s first unlimited fixed rate auction in three-and-a-half years is likely to send a strong signal to investors that +0.25% is right now a clear line in the sand for 10-year JGB yields... 11th February 2022 · 7 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Economy back in recovery mode next month Omicron disruption to supply chains was already holding back industrial production in some sectors in December. And with domestic cases surging since then the recovery will have gone into reverse at... 4th February 2022 · 5 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Stricter listing rules to lift profitability further Profit margins of listed Japanese firms hit a record high at the end of last year despite the headwinds from goods shortages and soaring input costs. That rise has a large structural component... 28th January 2022 · 6 mins read
Japan Economics Weekly Restrictions may not last long, key Shunto approaching With restrictions this week expanded to cover most of Japan’s economy, and surging infections already starting to cause staff shortages in some industries, GDP is only likely to tread water this... 21st January 2022 · 4 mins read
