The rise in Japan’s business service prices held steady at a three-decade high, in a development likely to fuel speculation that the Bank of Japan will inch its way toward normalizing policy in coming months, Bloomberg New reported. The country’s services producer price index, a gauge measuring the costs of a range of goods and services provided by businesses to other firms and government entities, rose 2.3% in November from a year earlier, the BOJ said Tuesday. It was the second month of 2.3% gains, the fastest since April 1992 when excluding periods when there were sales tax increases.

Major Japanese auto manufacturers will invest 150 billion baht ($4.34 billion) in Thailand over the next five years, a Thai government spokesperson said on Monday, supporting the Southeast Asian country's transition to making electric vehicles, Reuters reported. Toyota Motor and Honda Motor will invest about 50 billion baht each, while Isuzu Motors will invest 30 billion baht and Mitsubishi Motors 20 billion baht, spokesperson Chai Wacharoke said, adding this would include the production of electric pickup trucks. Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin concluded a trip to Japan last week.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda pointed out some positive potential aspects of having higher interest rates under normal economic conditions while also reiterating his pledge to continue with monetary easing patiently in the pursuit of stable inflation, Bloomberg News reported. “The most obvious benefit of a slightly positive inflation rate is larger room for monetary policy responses to an economic downturn,” Ueda said in a speech Monday at a conference hosted by the Keidanren, Japan’s biggest business lobby, in Tokyo.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.