Weekly summary

Paul Cavey

May 15, 2022

East Asia Today

The PBC injected liquidity for a second consecutive month in October. CPI inflation in Korea remains near 3%, more because of the cost-push factors than demand-pull. Cost-push includes the semi surge pushing up computer prices, a trend that caused some softness in Taiwan's PMI yesterday.

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Korea – CPI still cost-push

Cost-push – both energy and the spillover from higher chip costs into prices of downstream devices – is keeping inflation near 3%. The BOK expects demand-pull factors to become more obvious. So inflation will likely stay elevated, through for BOK policy, it is overall semi cycle that matters more.

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Taiwan – consumer v AI demand?

Taiwan's overall PMIs look fine. The details are shakier, but so far, it looks like the weakness is coming from softer demand for consumer tech as semi prices boost the cost of electronics devices. The data don't (yet) show obvious deterioration in the data centre component of the AI boom.