East Asia Econ

Korea – property price expectations tick up

Consumer confidence eked out another increase in August. But both inflation and house price expectations also rose. The BOK has been expecting higher food prices, so that isn't unexpected. However, the bank would have wanted to see more of a cooling of the property market by now.

Paul Cavey

Aug 26, 2025 • 2 min read

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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.