East Asia Econ

East Asia Today

Detailed Q3 GDP data for China don't provide much extra clarity. By contrast, yesterday's speech by Takata of the BOJ was a clear argument of why he thinks the bank needs to hike. In Korea, data for the first 20D of October show strong growth in exports of semiconductors, but not in anything else.

Paul Cavey

Oct 21, 2025 • 2 min read

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Japan – Takata's case for hiking

BOJ board member Takata Hajime yesterday likened the downwards revisions to the BOJ's forecasts on the back of tariffs to a typhoon-linked "planned suspension" of public transport that now needs to be lifted. He also argued inflationary pressure is increasingly being driven by domestic factors.

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China – more puzzles in Q3 data

Detailed Q3 data include a few puzzles: net export contribution stable when the trade surplus declined; construction dropping sharply when property has looked less bad; and quarterly investment growing when monthly FAI has dropped. The one detail that really adds up: manufacturing remaining strong.

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East Asia Today

Little sign of change in today's China macro data. So, while areas like consumption aren't as weak as the headlines suggest, in activity data overall there's little sign of stabilisation, let alone recovery. I discussed some of the issues around China, as well as the region, in a podcast last week.