Machinery Orders Fall in July

Yes, that's right, fall. This isn't the impression you would get from reading Bloomberg though:Japan's machinery orders surged in July at three times the pace forecast by economists, easing concern the economy will contract for a second quarter.Orders climbed a seasonally adjusted 17 percent to 1.12 trillion yen ($9.9 billion) from June, the Cabinet Office said in Tokyo today. The gain was led by

Yen vs Dollar: recent trend

Here is a chart produced by Yahoo Finance of the dollar-yen exchange rate:This would seem to reinforce Claus's assertion that the BoJ will do nothing with interest rates, as that would only exacerbate the strengthening of the yen versus the dollar. Given that the export sector is supporting Japan's GDP, Japanese officials aren't going to want to touch anything that would damage exports with a

Japan Contracts in Q2

(cross-post from Alpha.Sources)I see not reasons to mince my words on this one with the recent stark downward revision of Japanese GDP in Q2. (From Bloomberg) Japan's economy contracted at almost twice the pace forecast by analysts in the second quarter, reinforcing speculation the central bank will leave interest rates unchanged this year. The economy shrank at a 1.2 percent annual

GDP Q2 2007 Downward Revisions

"Is Japan Heading for a Recession?" Claus asks us in his last post, and the answer looking at the latest set of GDP revisions may well be yes.Japan’s economy shrank more sharply than expected in the second quarter, and revised growth domestic product data released today show an annualised contraction of 1.2 per cent. In general we had been expecting a downward revision following evidence last

Is Japan Heading for a Recession?

By Claus VistesenWhile financial markets are gazing firmly towards the US economy shadowing Ben Bernanke's every word and gesture for a hint of future rate decisions economic fundamentals in Japan are trending firmly and steadily downwards into worrisome territory. At this point however the headline chosen for this entry might still seem rather alarmist but given the nature of lag of economic

Japan July 2007 Wages

Japanese monthly wages, including overtime pay and bonuses, dropped 1.9 percent in July, the eighth monthly decline and the fastest pace in three years according to the Labor Ministry in Tokyo today.This development in Japanese wages is by no means new, as can be seen from this chart for annual changes over the last 4 years. In fact total earnings went down in both 2003 and 2004:Comment The

Investment In Plant and Equipment Q2 2007

Corporate investment in Japan declined in the second quarter of 2007 following a sharp fall in spending in the predominantly domestically focused non-manufacturing sector. According to data released by the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo today, capital spending sank 4.9 percent in the three months ended June 30 after advancing 13.6 percent in the first quarter. Here's the chart.We can also see that