East Asia Today

Despite a real surge in profits in tech hardware, overall industrial earnings in China continue to go sideways. Services PPI inflation in Japan points to real upside pressure for headline CPI in Japan in the next 6M. In CPB data, the recent strength in global trade volumes held up in July.

Paul Cavey

Sep 28, 2026 • 3 min read

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Last week, next week

The main cycle news in China is the rebound in input prices that likely further postpones monetary loosening. In Japan, the market will be waiting for this week's summary opinions of the September meeting. Korea has the strongest cycle momentum. In Taiwan, monetary policy looks too loose.

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East Asia Today

Japan being back from holiday allowed the delayed released of the BOJ's underlying inflation data for August. Holidays elsewhere mean no other data, so I've spent some time looking at the claims from Taiwan's central bank that its monetary policy stance is "on the tight side".

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Taiwan – tight (!) policy?

The CBC last week claimed that even with the policy rate staying at 2%, its monetary stance "remains on the tight side". I am not persuaded, but it is worth studying the bank's argument.