East Asia Today

Foreign equity holdings are another example of the huge impact of the AI cycle in Korea and Taiwan. Trade volume data in China illustrate again that imports are as weak as exports are strong. Money supply and credit data in Taiwan are strong, but likely not strong enough to push the CBC into action.

Paul Cavey

Oct 28, 2026 • 2 min read

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Taiwan – strong, but no trigger

September money and credit data for September are like other indicators for Taiwan: quite strong, but not high enough on their own to think that they suddenly break the CBC's apparently strong desire not to change policy.

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East Asia Today

The main data event today was Q3 GDP in Korea. In addition, China released profits data for September. There were two inflation updates in Japan, with the BOJ's measures of underlying CPI as well as services PPI. In Taiwan, we had consumer confidence for October.

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Korea – still the income tailwind

Today's Q3 GDP data continue the same story: real growth is solid, but more importantly, the huge windfall income gain from the surge in semiconductor prices remains a major tailwind for growth in 2027. The question remains how much of that income windfall will be spent.