East Asia Econ

East Asia Today

Today's main releases were in Korea, with trade data for the first 20 days of August, and July PPI. S&P released the flash August PMI for Japan. Also, some charts on foreign trade and monetary data in China from the detailed releases that follow the headline data published earlier in the month.

Paul Cavey

Aug 21, 2025 • 3 min read

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East Asia Today

Today's data releases included Japan wages (messy, but some interesting details), Korea's current account surplus (big, but not helping the KRW), and Taiwan inflation (low compared with ROW, high compared with history). Also, a link to a slide pack summarising my views for the region.

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Korea – CA surplus not helping the KRW

Data today show Korea's current account surplus remaining at over 5% of GDP. The fundamental driver is a fall in borrowing by the corporate sector. This structural surplus hasn't started to support the KRW. One reasons is continued outflows from the NPS.

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Japan – soft headline wages, details a bit better

Wage growth was softer in September. The continued slowdown in part-time wages per hour will be a bigger concern if it persists beyond the October rise in the minimum wage. Per hour full-time wage growth is stronger than the headline, though the data are noisy.