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Japanese consumers continued to turn more pessimistic in November, with confidence undermined by worries about the labour market and a reduced willingness to buy durable goods. The latter will almost certainly deteriorate further in December following the …
10th December 2010
November's Economy Watchers Survey (EWS) suggests that conditions may not be quite as bad in the fourth quarter as some fear, although the outlook is cloudier. The weakness of machinery orders at the start of the quarter is certainly discouraging. … …
8th December 2010
Japan's manufacturing sector has continued to weaken despite signs that industrial activity is picking up again in other major economies after a slowdown in the summer. This period of underperformance should end soon as car production levels out and the …
6th December 2010
As usual the latest Japanese data include something for everyone, with unemployment edging higher but industrial production not as weak as feared in October and expected to recover. … Unemployment & Industrial Production …
30th November 2010
October's drop in retail sales, like that in September, was exaggerated by the expiry of government subsidies for car purchases. The trends in overall consumer spending are healthier than the headlines suggest, but sales are likely to drop sharply in Q4. …
29th November 2010
The consensus is usually right to focus on the core measures of Japan’s CPI when looking at the prospects for a permanent end to deflation and the implications for monetary policy. Nonetheless, trends in all items inflation are still important when …
26th November 2010
The return of inflation to Japan last month was widely expected and likely to be temporary, but this does not mean it should be ignored completely. … National CPI …
Japan’s exports are weakening due both to the strength of the yen, which has already caused the local currency value of overseas sales to fall outright for most of the year, and more recently to a slowdown in global demand, which is undermining the volume …
25th November 2010
Japan’s economy grew more strongly than most had anticipated in the third quarter and inflation may even have turned positive at the beginning of the fourth. But neither development is likely to be sustained. In contrast to the rest of Asia, Japan faces a …
23rd November 2010
Consumer prices probably rose year-on-year in October for the first time since 2008, but this would not mark the end of deflation in any meaningful sense. Aside from the occasional spike into positive territory due to developments in commodity prices and …
22nd November 2010
Japan’s economy is on a roller-coaster ride. This year’s growth overall is likely to be the fastest of any G7 country, but GDP will almost certainly shrink in the fourth quarter. Such volatility, while not so unusual for Japan, will keep confidence …
16th November 2010
Japan's GDP growth in Q3 was comfortably above consensus, but the markets are right to be worried about its sustainability. We continue to expect the economy to contract again in Q4 as consumer spending drops back, exports struggle, and the recovery in …
15th November 2010
Monday's GDP figures for the third quarter should look good, with above-consensus growth of 1% (or more) quarter-on-quarter driven by domestic demand. However, the profile of the recent monthly data suggests that the economy will contract again in the …
Policy-makers and the financial markets may be focused on the risks posed by persistent deflation, but the latest surveys from Japan suggest that households there do not believe prices are falling and indeed that they would not be too bothered if prices …
12th November 2010
Machinery orders surged in the third quarter, supporting our view that a rebound in investment spending will contribute to an above-consensus increase in GDP in the official data released next week. The prospects for the fourth quarter, however, are less …
11th November 2010
Japanese consumers continue to grow more cautious, but the latest downtick in confidence is not unexpected given the weakness in other sentiment indicators and there are good reasons to expect sentiment to improve again shortly. In the meantime, …
10th November 2010
Japan’s Economy Watchers Survey (EWS) for October suggests that the recovery is faltering again in the fourth quarter after what we expect to have been strong (aboveconsensus) growth in GDP in the third. Bank lending also remains sluggish, although the …
9th November 2010
Now that the markets know the US Fed’s plans for additional QE, and these are presumably largely priced into the currency markets, any additional easing from the Bank of Japan will have a greater chance of weakening the yen. For this and other reasons, …
8th November 2010
The G20 Summit in Korea next week (11th – 12th) will be overshadowed by the fall-out from “currency wars”, hampering any attempt at the improved coordination of policies necessary to help rebalance the global economy. In particular, the US will find it …
5th November 2010
The rescheduling of the Bank of Japan’s next Policy Board meeting to Thursday and Friday this week was surely designed to provide an early opportunity to assess any market fall-out from the US Fed’s announcement tomorrow. We suspect that, other things …
2nd November 2010
The Bank of Japan’s decision to bring forward its November Policy Board meeting to the day after Wednesday’s FOMC raises the intriguing possibility that the Bank intends to respond to any additional quantitative easing in the US with further QE of its …
1st November 2010
Japan's manufacturing output fell in the third quarter, reflecting both weaker exports and the expiry of government car subsidies at home. The outlook for Q4 is grim. However, other parts of the economy are doing a little better, with household spending …
29th October 2010
The Bank of Japan’s decision to bring forward its November Policy Board meeting to the day after next Wednesday’s FOMC raises the intriguing possibility that the Bank intends to respond to any additional quantitative easing in the US with further QE of …
28th October 2010
Smaller Japanese businesses report that conditions are worsening, particularly in the manufacturing sector, which presumably reflects the more challenging global economic environment and the strength of the yen. Nonetheless, the mood is still less …
27th October 2010
The Bank of Japan’s Policy Board meets on Thursday and will almost certainly forecast that inflation will remain well below the new informal target of 1% until at least 2012. This does not necessarily mean, as many will assume, that there are no …
26th October 2010
Japan’s exports were broadly unchanged in the third quarter, marking an end to the string of large positive contributions to GDP growth from net trade. For now at least, consumer spending and investment appear to be picking up the slack, but the pressure …
25th October 2010
The surge in the yen and recent weakness in the export-oriented manufacturing sector have raised concerns that Japan may already be sliding back into recession. In contrast, our view is that the near-term outlook is brighter than generally appreciated, …
The expenditure breakdown released alongside the August activity index and the detail of the Bank of Japan’s Senior Loan Officer Survey both suggest that the economic recovery is finally spreading to investment. … Activity Index (Aug) & Senior Loan …
21st October 2010
The smaller-than-expected decline in the tertiary activity index suggests that the recovery in Japan’s service sector gathered pace in the third quarter despite the strength of the yen. … Tertiary Activity …
18th October 2010
The seemingly relentless appreciation of the yen against the dollar has not caused quite the degree of panic in Japan’s equity markets that might have been anticipated. In part this is because the yen is still a touch weaker now in trade-weighted terms …
There are some valid concerns over the outlook for the next few quarters, but the surge in machinery orders suggests that the long-awaited rebound in Japanese investment has at least begun. This should be an important support to GDP growth as the boosts …
13th October 2010
Japanese consumer confidence eroded further in September, although this is no surprise following the falls in other sentiment indicators. Confidence remains well above its 2009 trough and, for now at least, is still higher than at the start of 2010. … …
12th October 2010
China may have bought an unusually large quantity of Japanese bonds over the summer, but its purchases were too small to explain the strength of the yen or falls in government bond yields. In any case, the latest data show significant net sales by China …
11th October 2010
Current economic conditions worsened sharply last month, according to the latest Economy Watchers Survey (EWS). An apparent improvement in the outlook provided the thinnest of silver linings. Nonetheless, there are good reasons to think that the pessimism …
8th October 2010
Today’s announcements of a new asset purchase scheme by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) and its symbolic lowering of the key policy rate are not game changers and the tepid market response is probably justified. But they do at least show that the BoJ is willing …
5th October 2010
August's headline data on labour cash earnings were weaker than expected but the breakdown is reassuring and the underlying trends in employment income are continuing to improve. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan is reportedly considering a range of options …
4th October 2010
This week's focus will be on the Bank of Japan's Policy Board meeting, which concludes on Tuesday. Hopes of further monetary easing are high, but we see two risks. The first is simply that the Bank does nothing. preferring to wait until the end of the …
This week's wave of Japanese data has ended on a more positive note, with the unemployment rate falling in August for the second successive month, household spending firm, and the CPI no worse than expected. … Unemployment, Spending & CPI …
1st October 2010
The third successive monthly fall in industrial production in August was a nasty surprise and there may be worse to come as auto firms slash output following the expiry of a government scheme to boost car sales. This has also overshadowed last month's …
30th September 2010
The recent currency intervention by the Bank of Japan was almost certainly not the major shift in monetary policy that many seem to assume. The move was ordered by the Ministry of Finance and the likelihood that it has not yet been fully sterilised may …
29th September 2010
The Bank of Japan's quarterly Tankan confirmed that business conditions were still improving in the third quarter but will be tougher in the fourth. … Tankan Survey …
Smaller businesses in Japan took a more downbeat view of the outlook in September as yen strength, domestic political uncertainties, and the spat with China all had an impact. But the survey does not indicate that the upswing is about to grind to a halt. …
28th September 2010
Japan's exports are still holding up rather better in volume than in value terms, but there is no doubt that the strength of the yen is hurting. What's more, the export and import data combined suggest that net trade may actually subtract from GDP growth …
27th September 2010
The coming week is packed with key data, the bulk of which should be relatively upbeat. The markets will focus on the Tankan, but the monthly business surveys for September should also be reassuring. Retail sales, industrial output and housing starts …
July’s all industry activity index suggests that Japan’s economic recovery picked up again in the third quarter after wobbling in the second quarter. In particular, the expenditure breakdown (which is usually over-looked) shows that consumer spending rose …
22nd September 2010
There has been much fruitless speculation over whether the Japanese authorities want the yen to fall back sharply or just want to see it stabilise. We do not believe there is any such “grand plan”. Indeed, the aim of Wednesday’s intervention may have been …
20th September 2010
Japan’s economy grew more than initially thought in the second quarter, although conditions will remain tough for some time given the ongoing global slowdown. Business and consumer confidence have weakened in recent weeks. However, the labour market is …
13th September 2010
The revised data for Q2 GDP, released on Friday, confirmed that last quarter’s economic performance was not nearly as poor as first appeared. There are clouds on the horizon, but the evidence so far suggests that the economy has picked up pace since the …
The pick-up in Japanese consumer sentiment appears to have run out of steam. On the bright side, confidence is not too far short of pre-crisis levels, in contrast to the subdued state of sentiment seen in many other major economies. … Consumer Confidence …
9th September 2010
Today's batch of data showed that machine orders were strong in July but bank credit figures for August and the current conditions index of last month's Economy Watchers Survey (EWS) were disappointing. The EWS outlook measure fell sharply too. … …
8th September 2010
