East Asia Today

Korea's current account surplus, already enormous in May, rose further in June. That, and the easing of foreigner equity selling, has allowed (at last) some strengthening of the KRW. Taiwan headline inflation ticked down in July, but underlying price pressures remain firm.

Paul Cavey

Aug 6, 2026 • 2 min read

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Taiwan – firm inflation pressure

Both headline and core CPI inflation ticked down in July as energy prices eased. However, underlying inflation feels firm, with sequential core failing to break below 2%; import price, PPI inflation and CPI computer price inflation rising to decade highs; and services inflation running at 2.6%.

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East Asia Today

What global commodity prices tell us about the outlook for upstream inflation in the region; data in China showing another fall in building materials prices, and a sharp decline in the services PMI; decent wage growth data for Japan; and in Taiwan, another fall in fx reserves in July.

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Japan – firm wages, stronger prices

Underlying regular wage growth at a bit under 3% is probably still a touch lower than the BOJ would like. But part-time hourly wage growth is 5%, and anyway, with today's services PMI showing more sharp rises in output prices, underlying wage growth isn't the only factor that matters for inflation.