East Asia Today

A longer note today catching up on last week's interesting Q2 GDP release in Korea. Also, charts covering today's release of August monetary data in China, and July wages in Taiwan.

Paul Cavey

Sep 14, 2026 • 3 min read

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Korea – the rising tide

Last week's GDP data showed nominal growth of over 25% YoY in Q2. Most of that was in the form of corporate profits, but employee compensation still rose 8% YoY. With the government planning growth in fiscal spending of 12% in 2027, there are more signs of the IT sector lifting the broader economy.

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Last week, next week

I am away the next few days, so this week's summary focuses on what appeared on the site in the last week. I am back on Monday 14th September.

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East Asia Today

Korean BOP data for August, an update on upstream prices in China, which have been stronger than I had been expecting, and PBC liquidity operations through August. Foreign exchange reserves in Taiwan rebounded in August. I am away next week, so the next update will be Monday 14th September.