East Asia Econ

East Asia Today

High-frequency price data in China suggest that PPI might turn positive this month for the first time since 2022. In other releases today, underlying CPI inflation and sentiment in Japan remains firm, services prices boosted PPI in Korea in February, and IP in Taiwan last month was strong once again

Paul Cavey

Mar 24, 2026 • 3 min read

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Japan – underlying dynamics still solid

Headline inflation data continue to be affected by policy measures to control energy and public services prices. The underlying picture is more stable, with core private services inflation of around 2%, PT wage growth of 5%, and PMIs above 50. The big risk, of course, is the impact of the Iran war.

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East Asia Today

Gasoline prices across the region are rising, but much less slowly than the increase in crude prices. Data through the first 20 days of March show only a modest rise in energy imports so far in Korea. At the same time, chip exports have continued to grow, pushing up the trade surplus.

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Last week, next week

In the first stage of the Iran War, China has been the relative winner, and Japan the loser. The next stage would be yet higher energy prices that challenge the sustainability of efforts to control inflation for consumers, and mean economies start to face a negative demand shock too.