East Asia Today

Lots of data updates today: August services trade and Q2 current account in China; export and labour market updates in Japan; for Korea, the September business confidence survey from the BOK; and finally in Taiwan, leading indicators for August and consumer confidence for September.

Paul Cavey

Sep 29, 2026 • 3 min read

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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.

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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".