Thursday, February 28, 2008

Japan Industrial Output January 2008

Japan's factory output fell in January at a much faster rate than most economists were expecting. Output was down 2 percent from December, when it rose 1.4 percent, the Trade Ministry said today in Tokyo.The report also showed that companies plan to cut production further in February, with manufacturers antipitaing that output will slide 2.9 percent from January, before rebounding by 2.8% in

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Japan Trade Statistics January 2008

Bloomberg have a pretty misleading article today on the latest set of trade figures published by the Japanese finance ministry (let's say even more misleading than I have unfortunately become rather accustomed to in the Japanese context). Basically the Bloomberg story is:Japan's export growth unexpectedly quickened in January, as rising demand for cars and steel from China and Russia made up for

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Toshihiko Fukui's Term At The BoJ

Toshihiko Fukui will retire as governor, after five years at the helm of the Bank of Japan, on the 19th March. His successor may well be announced this week. This morning in the Financial Times David Pilling has a long, and very "fair and balanced" asseessment of Fukui's time at the BoJ, which is more than worthwhile reading for those of you who would like to understand the workings of this

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Q&A on Japan

In the context of Francois Guillaume's pertinent comments and questions to my review and preview note and in the light of today's much surprising Q4 GDP release I have chosen to present my comments and answers to Francois' questions/comments above the fold à la Q&A.---1) GDP much higher than expected...how do you explain that ?? I want to focus on two issues here. First of all, the current

Japan Q4 2007 GDP Preliminary Estimate

Well the preliminary Q4 GDP numbers are now out and they are definitely better than expected. Japan's economy grew at an annualised rate of 3.7 percent in the last quarter of 2007, and this was at least double the pace most economists were expecting, as strong business investment and exports to Asia and Europe helped the Japanese economy weather the U.S. slowdown. Gross domestic product in the

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Review and Preview on Japan

(Cross-post from Alpha.Sources)I realize that I am moving in a bit late with this but the data I use to input in my analysis only recently came out for December 2007. More generally, this post is going to be quite big since I have a lot of things I want to get off my chest this time around. I have two main areas of focus I want to cover.Firstly I want to finalise my analysis of Japan in 2007 with

Japan Consumer Confidence January 2008

Since Claus has just written a substantial analysis, this is just a brief note to keep the data up to date. The news, hardly unexpectedly, isn't good, since Japan's consumer confidence dropped in January to its lowest level in more than four years as rising prices and falling wages continued to squeeze households. The Consumer Confidence Index fell to 37.5 last month from 38 in December,

Friday, February 8, 2008

Japan Economy Watchers Index January 2008

Japanese merchant sentiment fell to a six-year low in January as stagnant wages and rising oil and food prices forced consumers to cut back on spending. The Economy Watchers index, a survey of barbers, shopkeepers and others who deal directly with consumers, fell to 31.8 in January from 36.6 in December. This is the biggest monthly drop ever the Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo. The index is

Japan Machinery Orders December 2007

Japan's machinery orders fell for the second consecutive month in December as manufacturers scaled back investment in anticipation of slowing global economic growth. Machinery orders which provide us with a useful indicator of business spending for the coming three to six months, dropped by 6.8% in December from November (on a seasonally adjusted basis) the Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Japan Index of Leading Indicators December 2007

Japan's leading index, which is the government's broadest indicator of the economic outlook today signaled slowing economic growth for a fifth consecutive month. The leading index was at 40 percent in December, below the threshold of 50 that signals growth will slow in the next three to six months, the Cabinet Office said today. Nonetheless the reading is up on November's 10, and if you look at