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BoJ set to press ahead with "stupid" rate hikes Japan won’t have its first female Prime Minister after all as former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba won the runoff in the LDP leadership election against economic security minister Sanae Takaichi. In …
27th September 2024
The government tried to prevent the Bank of Japan from hiking interest rates in 2000 but that attempt was unsuccessful and the government has respected the Bank’s independence ever since. Renewed efforts to bring the BoJ to heel look unlikely now given …
24th September 2024
Flash PMI suggests continued rebound in activity The composite PMI remained at healthy level in September which suggests that the strong rebound in activity that started last quarter will continue across the second half of the year. Today’s flash estimate …
Takaichi leading in the polls According to a recent poll, Economic Security minister Sanae Takaichi is seen as the most suitable successor for departing Prime Minister Fumio Kushida. However, the LDP’s leadership elections next Friday will probably …
20th September 2024
The Bank of Japan today signalled that it’s in no rush to tighten monetary policy any further and we’re pushing back our forecast for a final rate hike to 0.5% from October to December. As widely anticipated, the Bank kept its policy rate unchanged at …
The Bank of Japan kept policy unchanged today as widely anticipated and we’re sticking to our forecast that it will deliver another 25bp rate hike at its October meeting. As correctly anticipated by all analysts polled by Reuters, including ourselves, the …
Underlying inflation will hover around 2% until early-2025 Underlying inflation rebounded in August and will remain close to the BoJ’s 2% target until early-2025, triggering another rate hike by the Bank at its October meeting. The 2.8% annual rise in …
Drag from net trade will moderate Q3 GDP growth Even though the trade balance held up much better than most had anticipated in August, net trade will still provide a large drag on Q3 GDP growth. The 5.6% y/y rise in export values was much weaker than the …
18th September 2024
Stronger yen reducing upside risks to inflation Developments over the past week seem to support the consensus view that the Bank of Japan will wait at least until December before hiking interest rates again. After all, the yen reached a fresh high against …
13th September 2024
Stronger yen has reduced upside risks to inflation, but labour shortages persist Recent data should have enhanced Bank’s confidence in its central scenario Bank will hike rates in October, but refrain from tightening any further in 2025 The Bank of …
12th September 2024
Getting an early steer on whether an economy has entered recession requires a holistic assessment of a variety of indicators to see if multiple variables are flagging recession at the same time. In this vein, we have created Economic Momentum Indicators …
9th September 2024
Regular pay growth hits 32-year high According to preliminary figures for July , regular wage growth jumped from 2.2% y/y to 2.7%, which is where we had expected it to peak in the second half of this year. And an alternative gauge that the Bank of Japan …
6th September 2024
Overview – The economy is on the mend and underlying inflation seems to be levelling off around the Bank of Japan’s 2% target. Accordingly, we still expect a final rate hike in October. But as inflation falls below target next year and the spring wage …
5th September 2024
Regular earnings growth will approach 3% While weaker growth in bonus payments weighed on overall wage growth, base pay rose by the most since 1992 in July and we think it will continue to surge in the coming months. The preliminary estimate released …
Activity rebounding, inflation levelling off at 2% The activity and inflation data released today increase our conviction that the Bank of Japan will press ahead with another rate hike. The rebound in industrial production and the rise in retail sales in …
30th August 2024
Economic recovery lost some steam in Q3 The July activity data suggest that the economic recovery continued in Q3 but shifted down at least one gear. The 2.8% m/m rise in industrial production in July was a touch weaker than the analyst consensus of 3.3% …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Underlying inflation seems to settle around 2% The jump in the unemployment rate in July should reverse before long as economic activity rebounds. Meanwhile, the renewed pick-up …
The persistent strength in producer price inflation probably still mostly reflects the lagged influence of the surge in import costs rather than any pick-up in wage growth. If the yen keeps strengthening over the next couple of years, inflation will fall …
27th August 2024
Wage growth is starting to outpace inflation and with real incomes rising, the rebound in consumer spending has further to run. While underlying inflation will fall further below 2% over the coming months, we still expect the Bank to hike rates once more …
26th August 2024
Underlying inflation falling below 2% According to a recent survey, 57% of analysts predict another rate hike by year-end, with one-third thinking it will happen in October and the remainder favouring the December meeting. In his parliamentary hearing …
23rd August 2024
Underlying inflation will fall below 2% With underlying inflation falling below 2% for the first time since 2022 and set to decline further, the case for further monetary tightening is starting to diminish. Headline inflation held steady at 2.8% in July, …
This page has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Flash PMI points to further rapid rebound in activity The rise in the composite PMI to a 16-month high suggests that the strong rebound in activity that started last quarter …
22nd August 2024
While we expect inflation to fall below the Bank of Japan’s 2% next year, the Bank’s still very accommodative stance means that this alone won’t trigger interest rate cuts. We think it would require a major downturn in activity that results in a looser …
19th August 2024
Real labour incomes rising again The 0.8% q/q rise in Q2 GDP was stronger than most had anticipated though close to our Nowcast estimate. The main driver was a 1% q/q jump in consumption, the first increase following four consecutive quarterly falls. That …
16th August 2024
Strong rebound in consumption points to further monetary tightening The strong rebound in GDP last quarter was driven by the first rise in consumption in more than a year and should encourage the Bank of Japan to press ahead with another rate hike later …
15th August 2024
Prime Minister Kishida’s resignation is hardly a surprise. At this stage, it’s very difficult to predict who will succeed him and the ruling LDP will probably remain in power for the foreseeable future. The upshot is that Kishida’s withdrawal doesn’t have …
14th August 2024
Financial stress should be short-lived The Topix and the yen have reversed some of the large moves seen earlier this week, but BoJ Deputy Governor Uchida still signalled that those developments have reduced the chances of further policy tightening in a …
8th August 2024
Even though it’s difficult to identify what could have broken as a result of the recent rapid market moves, a stronger yen is a bigger threat to the health of Japan’s financial institutions than falling stock prices. The Topix has reversed half of the …
7th August 2024
Japan’s government has intervened in the FX markets to weaken the yen far more often than to strengthen it. But FX interventions have become very rare over the past two decades and our sense is that the government is welcoming a stronger exchange rate in …
6th August 2024
Strong wage growth adds to case for further BoJ tightening The enormous rise in labour cash earnings in June was mostly driven by a jump in summer bonus that won’t be sustained, but the figures clearly point to another BoJ rate hike later this year if the …
While faster wage growth should eventually result in a significant pick-up in rental inflation, it seems likely that rental growth will trail income growth for the foreseeable future. That means that the Bank of Japan will have to let the economy run …
5th August 2024
Near-term outlook for consumption brightening As we had anticipated , the Bank of Japan’s decision to halve its JGB purchases over the next couple of years didn’t deter it from also raising interest rates further at this week’s meeting . Press reports …
2nd August 2024
The Bank of Japan outlined a plan for reducing its bond purchases and hiked its policy rate by 20bp today. We think it will follow up with another 20bp hike at its October meeting . Only one-third of analysts polled by Reuters, ourselves included, had …
31st July 2024
Bank will hike rates once more in October The Bank of Japan hiked its policy rate by 20bp today and we think it will follow up with another 20bp hike at its October meeting. Only one-third of analysts polled by Reuters, ourselves included, had expected …
Growth should hold up in Q3 June’s strong activity data suggest that GDP may have rebounded even more strongly last quarter than we’re anticipating. The 3.6% m/m fall in industrial production merely reversed a similar-sized gain in May and wasn’t as …
In detailed analysis last year, we concluded that equilibrium nominal interest rates would settle at between 3% and 4% in advanced economies in the next ten years. We maintain that opinion and in fact some of the forces boosting equilibrium rates seem to …
30th July 2024
Labour market shrugging off fall in job openings The conundrum of low unemployment despite falling job openings continued in June and we expect the labour market to keep treading water over coming months. Data released today showed that the …
Weak Tokyo CPI may prompt BoJ inaction While we expect the Bank of Japan to lift its policy rate to 0.3% at next week’s meeting (see our BoJ Watch ), only one-third of analysts polled by Refinitiv expect a rate hike at that meeting. The financial markets …
26th July 2024
This website has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Underlying inflation may moderate faster than we expect The sharp slowdown in inflation excluding fresh food and energy in Tokyo this month reduces the likelihood that the …
Following a wobbly period around the turn of the year, the economy is on the mend and should gather further momentum as real wage growth turns positive in the second half of the year. With goods inflation still having strong momentum, we now expect the …
25th July 2024
Bank has pledged that it will keep tightening policy if inflation evolves as expected If anything, weak yen creates upside risks to Board’s inflation forecasts Bank will hike its policy rate by 20bp in both July and October At its upcoming meeting, we …
24th July 2024
Recovery will retain momentum across second half of 2024 The strong rebound in the composite PMI in July suggests that the recovery of Japan’s economy will continue across the second half of the year. According to the flash estimate released today, the …
Mof intervenes again All signs are that Japan’s government sold US dollars to support the yen on Thursday and Friday last week. Bank of Japan data suggest that the intervention was a bit smaller than previous ones, perhaps because the yen was already …
19th July 2024
This website has been updated with additional analysis since first publication. Inflation will remain above target until early-2025 While the Bank of Japan will still see the July Tokyo CPI before its meeting later this month, the June nationwide figures …
Drag from net trade will moderate Q2 GDP rebound While the widening of the trade deficit in June points to a sizeable drag from net exports on Q2 GDP growth, activity should still have rebounded last quarter. The 5.4% y/y rise in export values was weaker …
18th July 2024
Japan’s intervention in support of the yen is not enough in itself to generate a sustained rebound in the yen. But with the FOMC (finally) nearing its first rate cut while the BoJ continues to tighten its policy stance gradually, we think the tide is now …
17th July 2024
While higher interest rates will make owner-occupied housing less affordable, the Bank of Japan will only tighten policy gradually so detached house prices will probably hold up well. By contrast, there’s a risk of a sizeable correction in apartment …
15th July 2024
Goods inflation set to remain strong Data released this week showed that producer price inflation has jumped from 0.3% in January to 2.9% in June, though the bulk of that increase is due to a rebound in electricity & gas inflation. Producer prices of …
12th July 2024
The continued weakness of the renminbi and the yen against the US dollar despite the narrowing of interest rate differentials via-a-vis the US is something of a conundrum, but our sense remains that both currencies will rebound against the dollar later …
11th July 2024
While there are tentative signs that Japan’s economy is becoming more dynamic, this has yet to produce significant improvements in aggregate productivity. We still think that a more meaningful pick-up in productivity growth will only happen towards the …
10th July 2024
