East Asia Econ

East Asia Today

China's May exports and imports were both strong. The details showed continuation of the steady uptrend in auto exports, big falls in energy imports, and strong trade in semiconductors. Chips exports remain the dominant story in Taiwan's trade, though imports have also been rising.

Paul Cavey

Jun 9, 2026 • 2 min read

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Korea – Shin's surer

BOK governor Shin Hyun Song gave a speech on Friday to mark the 76th anniversary of the bank's founding. It was short, but worth highlighting, because he sounded more confident about the outlook, and downplayed the significance of uneven growth as a factor for monetary policy.

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Last week, next week

Three themes: whether the weakness in the activity data releases of a month ago in China was noise; Japan, where one hike is unlikely to be enough to really change market conditions; and the semi super cycle, which should be having more impact on fx and rates (in Taiwan) than has yet been evident.

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East Asia Today

Monetary data for China for May and April wage growth were released late in the day, so some charts summarising both. And while semi-driven nominal growth is near 20% in both Korea and Taiwan, the volume and price composition is very different.