Japan - GDP

Paul Cavey

Feb 15, 2022 • 2 min read

East Asia Today

It's been a big week for data in Korea, and there was more today, with the end-month activity numbers. Retail sales bounced, but other sectors remained subdued. Data for Japan today showed retail sales being weak, but consumer confidence has improved, and UE has fallen to a new post-covid low.

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Japan – UE falls to post-covid low

The fall in the UE rate in July to 2.3% isn't substantively important. The mechanics behind it were more noteworthy, in particular a ticking down in the part rate. Other data today show a softening of inflation in Tokyo in August, and nationwide retail sales falling to the lowest level in 2 years.

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Korea – retail sales up, overall output still rangebound

There's been enough data on Korea already this week, so just briefly on today's end-of-month July data. There was a nice bounce in retail sales, reflecting the impact of fiscal policy. But IP was flat, and construction ticked down, so all economy output remains range-bound.