East Asia Today

Not unusually, China's PMIs in September were mixed – a picture consistent with yesterday's announcement of incremental policy support. IP and retail sales in Japan fell in August, partly because of temporary factors. Korea data were also weaker last month, but that followed strength in June-July.

Paul Cavey

Sep 30, 2026 • 2 min read

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Korea – August a bit weaker

Softer output and capex in August is most likely noise, reflecting temporary issues in auto production, and lumpiness in investment spending on transport equipment. Even with that, Q3 GDP growth is tracking around 1% QoQ.

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China – mixed PMIs, incremental policy

The manufacturing PMIs remain mixed. The S&P version is much stronger. And while weak in level terms, prices in the official versions are strong. This is the context for the latest, incremental, policy measures: from Beijing's perspective, conditions just aren't bad enough to warrant a new approach.

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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.