East Asia Econ

East Asia Today

In today's summary: for Japan, wages, consumer activity, and 20D exports ; and for Taiwan, FX reserves and price data. Also, one more thing to note: I will be away from a few days from Monday. The next daily update will be on Wednesday 17th September.

Paul Cavey

Sep 5, 2025 • 2 min read

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Taiwan – import prices up, core CPI up more

August data today show the impact of the weaker TWD since July: fx reserves fell, import prices ticked up MoM, and CPI inflation rose. The lesson is that without currency strength, the step-change in economic growth since 2020 is more likely to show up in domestic prices.

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Japan – softening in July wage release

Headline full-timer wages data were strong in July. But the details of the overall wage release were softer, and warn of some lessening of labour market tightness. In other data today, consumption was soft in July, and exports in the first 20 days of August also weakened.

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East Asia Today

High-frequency price data continue to show deflation in China is as much about weak aggregate demand in construction as over-supply in manufacturing. Elsewhere, BOK BOP data show NPS buying continues to create capital outflows, offsetting the KRW impact of the structural CA surplus.