East Asia Today

The main release today was Korean CPI inflation for August, which remained firm. Japan tax revenue ticked down last month, but the uptrend of recent years remains intact. However, the monetary base is falling fast. Also today, a comprehensive guide and online model to Japan's fiscal position.

Paul Cavey

Sep 2, 2026 • 2 min read

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Korea – inflation firm

I thought the underlying data in today's CPI release were firm. Despite an easing in travel expenses, core inflation (excluding mobile phone bills) remained at 2.8% YoY, the trimmed mean rose, and the diffusion across all items ticked up.

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Japan – fiscal guide

A step-by-step guide to understanding Japan's fiscal position. By using this, you will have a better idea of how to make the assumptions needed for each component of the standard gross debt equation, which can then be plugged into our online model.

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East Asia Today

A busy day of data today, with regional PMIs, Q2 profits data for Japan, and foreign trade in August for Korea. Japan is leading in both relative manufacturing activity and prices. Taiwan activity is also strong, and not benefiting from the ccy appreciation that is dampening input prices in Korea.