East Asia Econ

East Asia Today

BOJ Governor Ueda's Jackson Hole remarks at the weekend on the labour market have relevance for interest rates in Japan, and, given demographic trends, economics more broadly in the region. Also, an update on high-frequency price data in China.

Paul Cavey

Aug 25, 2025 • 2 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.