East Asia Econ

Japan – some help from autos

Japan's exports are being helped by some normalisation of auto sales. But our regional leading indicator continues to point firmly down.

Paul Cavey

Nov 17, 2022 • 2 min read

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East Asia Today

I am catching up with things after my break. Surveys of the last few days and today's trade data for August show tariffs aren't yet triggering a big macro dislocation in Japan. That's important for the BOJ. In China, the macro data for August show the bottoming of the activity remains fragile.

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Japan – still no tariff-dislocation in manufacturing

Manufacturing sentiment in the EW (Aug) and Reuters Tankan (Sep) surveys is back above the long-term average. Export volumes have softened the last couple of months, but are still above end-2024 levels. This is probably a lesser impact from tariffs than the BOJ had expected.

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Last week, next week

The major themes: the ending of the first stage of China's post-2020 forced structural adjustment; in Japan, peaking of inflation but BOJ still to hike; BOK cuts but inflation higher than I would have expected; expecting renewed TWD strength. I am now away for a few days, back on September 16th.