Japan Economics Weekly Who will benefit from rising US interest rates? The recent slump in the yen has lifted the yen-value of foreign assets and associated income streams. We estimate that the government’s net debt has fallen by 11% of GDP since the US election as the... 6th January 2017 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly What to expect in 2017 We expect Japan’s economy to grow by 1% next year. Given how low potential growth is, this should be enough to drive a further decline in spare capacity and to add to price pressures. The Bank of... 23rd December 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Boost from net trade to fizzle out next year The recent sharp fall in import volumes is largely a legacy of the slump in the exchange rate in the early stages of Abenomics. We expect imports to rebound next year, so the boost from net trade to... 16th December 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly What to expect from the upcoming Shunto? We expect the upcoming spring wage negotiations to result in base pay hikes of only 0.5% or so, which would be broadly in line with the increase agreed upon this year. Even with output per employee... 9th December 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Yen weakness to feed inflation rebound The recent weakening of the yen will lift headline inflation by around 0.5 percentage points in coming months and further gains are likely if, as we have been forecasting for a while, the yen weakens... 2nd December 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly BoJ set to taper its JGB purchases A further rise in global government bond yields may put the Bank of Japan’s yield target under pressure but we nonetheless believe the Bank will be able to reduce its asset purchases next year while... 25th November 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Bank of Japan on hold for foreseeable future With the yen weakening dramatically since the US election and incoming data showing GDP growth strong last quarter, there is now little pressure on the Bank of Japan to ease further. Less positively... 18th November 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Housing rent to remain a drag on inflation Falling rents have been a persistent drag on inflation in Japan. While condominium prices have surged since the launch of QQE, there is virtually no link between house prices and rents. Instead, rents... 11th November 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Is consumer spending about to take off? Consumer spending has been broadly flat since 2014’s sales tax hike as households have used the windfall from falling energy and import prices to replenish savings. However, we believe that this is... 4th November 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly When will the Bank of Japan start tapering? The Bank of Japan recently abandoned its target for expansion of the monetary base but said that it would continue to buy assets at around the same rate as before. This pace of asset purchases will... 28th October 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Surge in current account highlights sluggish demand The strong recent increase in the current account surplus is bad news for an economy struggling with persistently weak demand, as it implies that households and firms have saved rather than spent the... 21st October 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Surge in labour force soon to run out of steam Japan’s effective labour force has continued to grow despite a continued fall in the working-age population as more women have entered the workforce and baby-boomers have continued to work into older... 14th October 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Why is services inflation slowing? While the collapse in energy prices over the past two years explains some of the recent decline in services inflation, we suspect that it mostly reflects the sluggish state of consumer spending... 7th October 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Offshoring, the yen & inflation Japanese manufacturers continue to increase production in their overseas subsidiaries. However, only a fraction of the goods produced overseas are re-imported to Japan. With the overall importance of... 30th September 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Is rising real estate debt a cause for concern? Data from the Bank of Japan show that bank lending to real estate companies reached a record high last quarter and, on some measures, property prices have been rising rapidly too. However, broader... 23rd September 2016 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly End of tourism boom no disaster The stronger yen has brought Japan’s tourism boom to a halt. However, the importance ofoverseas visitors for economic activity remains small. The bigger risks from the appreciation ofthe exchange rate... 16th September 2016 · 1 min read
