East Asia Today

The highlights today were deputy governor Himino's speech in Japan, and the BOK meeting in Korea. Tech profits in China remain strong, but aren't lifting overall earnings. Consumer confidence in Taiwan weakened in July, while the official Monitoring Index continues to point to an economic boom.

Paul Cavey

Aug 27, 2026 • 3 min read

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Korea – "pre-emptive"

Today's BOK meeting didn't throw up any big surprises: core CPI and growth forecasts were raised against the backdrop of the TOT shock, and the bank hiked again with the aim of being "pre-emptive". However, Governor Shin's remarks at the press conference produced a lot to digest.

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Japan – Himino hawkish

Deputy governor Himino's argued today that all the main macro dynamics are pushing up prices, underlying inflation has been rising, and so there is now a risk of "underlying inflation exceeding 2%". Unsurprisingly, he didn't spell out the policy implications, but it does sound quite hawkish, no?

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Korea – still on the up

Back-to-back rate hikes aren't common, and since July, stronger KRW and lower equities have tightened FCI. However, the economic backdrop is unusually strong, so I would still expect the BOK to hike at its August meeting. That said, rather than rates, it is the KRW that looks more interesting here.