Japan's finance minister on Friday said he would strive to contain the risk of runaway debt after unveiling an annual budget as speculation mounts the central bank will shift away from more than two decades of ultra-easy monetary policy, Reuters reported. The world's third-largest economy is under pressure to restore its fiscal health after prolonged stimulus and spending worsened a national debt that is the heaviest in the industrialised world.
Read more
Japan
Japan’s labor market remained relatively tight in November, keeping pressure on employers to boost pay in order to fill positions as companies prepare to engage in annual wage negotiations with unions, Bloomberg News reported. The job-to-applicants ratio eased a tad to 1.28, meaning there were 128 jobs offered for every 100 applicants, the labor ministry reported Tuesday. Economists had forecast the reading would be unchanged at 1.30. A separate report from the ministry of internal affairs showed the unemployment rate held steady at 2.5% in November.
Read more
The Bank of Japan maintained ultra-loose policy settings on Tuesday in a widely expected move, as the bank opted to await more evidence on whether wages and prices would rise enough to justify a shift away from massive monetary stimulus, Reuters reported. The central bank also made no change to its dovish policy guidance, dashing hopes among some traders it would tweak the language to signal a near-term end to negative interest rates.
Read more
SBI Holdings Inc., Rakuten Group Inc. and Monex Group Inc. are among brokerages in Japan that also sold Credit Suisse’s riskiest bonds to retail investors, highlighting the widening fallout of these products in the country, Bloomberg News reported. The operators of the nation’s three major online brokerages offered the Swiss lender’s Additional Tier 1 notes for a minimum purchase amount of $200,000, according to copies of the firms’ product explanatory materials seen by Bloomberg News.
Read more
China, Japan and South Korea agreed on Sunday to restart cooperation and pave the way for a summit in the latest move to ease tensions between the Asian neighbours, Reuters reported. Even as China and the United States seek to mend frayed ties, including a summit this month between Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, Beijing is concerned that Washington and its key regional allies are strengthening their three-way partnership.
Read more
Japan's economy contracted in July-September, snapping two straight quarters of expansion on soft consumption and exports, complicating the central bank's efforts to gradually phase out its massive monetary stimulus amid rising inflation, Reuters reported. The data suggests stubbornly high inflation is taking a toll on household spending, and adding to the pain for manufacturers from slowing global demand including in China. "Given the absence of a growth engine, it wouldn't surprise me if the Japanese economy contracted again in the current quarter.
Read more
The pace of gains in Japan’s producer prices decelerated more than expected in October to the weakest in over two years, supporting the Bank of Japan’s view that inflation is cooling, Bloomberg News reported. A measure of input prices for Japanese firms rose 0.8% from a year earlier, the slowest pace of growth since gains resumed in March 2021, the Bank of Japan reported Monday. The data compared with economists’ expectations of a 0.9% increase year-on-year. From the prior month, prices fell 0.4%, compared to the consensus view of a 0% change.
Read more
The Bank of Japan may end its negative interest rate policy as early as January, and keep raising short-term borrowing costs if the economy can weather risks from overseas uncertainties, said former central bank executive Eiji Maeda, Reuters reported. The BOJ last month revised up its price estimates to project inflation to hit 1.9% in both fiscal 2024 and 2025, as measured by an index that strips away the effects of volatile fresh food and fuel costs.
Read more
Japanese manufacturers' business confidence improved for the first time since August while service-sector mood rose for a second month, according to the Reuters Tankan poll, which also highlighted a challenging outlook amid a patchy economic recovery, Reuters reported. The monthly poll mirrored a similar improvement seen in the third quarter in the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) closely-watched quarterly tankan survey.
The Unification Church’s Japanese branch announced plans Tuesday to set aside a fund up to 10 billion yen ($67 million) to cover possible compensation for those seeking damages they say were caused by the group’s manipulative fundraising tactics, the Associated Press reported. The move is seen as an attempt to allay any suspicion that the group would try to avoid later payouts by hiding assets overseas while a government-requested dissolution order is pending.