Standing Fast

by Claus VistesenHardly any economist or analyst battered an eyelid when the BOJ chose yesterday to hold the main interest rate at 0.5%. Indeed much of the recent data coming out Japan (and here) recently point to considerable risk of Japan slipping into deflation in 2007 and on that note most economists (including yours truly) expect the BOJ to be in a holding mode for the time being especially

Please Take Note

by Claus Vistesen My regular postings and data watching from the Eurozone and Japan have been somewhat absent as of late. However, I am going to take it up again now and I will begin with Japan. There are many aspects here and one of them is of course the recent rate hike in the overnight lending rate from 0.25% to 0.50% where Edward so eloquently reminded us to look to the past in order

Japan In The Front View Mirror

This week the Japanese economy has suddenly become the centre of everyone's attention, and just today we have the news that the Bank of Japan has finally bitten the bullet, and gone for a further 0.25% increase in its overnight lending rate. However I cannot help having the unfortunate feeling that everyone is so busy eagerly looking forward (to the recovery, the end of the carry trade, or

Central Bankers and Political Pressures

Sorry I've been away for a while: too much work chasing too little time.Now this interview in the FT today with Barney Frank, Democratic chairman of the House financial services committee, is reasonably interesting. Frank is worried about any possible decision by the Federal Reserve, following the lead of Ben Bernanke, to introduce inflation targeting as policy:In an interview, Mr Frank told the

Japan: To Raise or Not to Raise, That is the Question

Well in some ways this is an interesting week in Japan. The Boj has to take a decision on whether or not to raise interest rates. As Claus Vistesen says in an aptly titled post, this is just too close to call. Nonetheless I will stick my neck out just a little, I don't think they will raise, but I wouldn't attach a very high level of certainty to this, since there are a lot of pressures in both

Export Dominated Growth In Germany and Japan

Well it is now more or less official, growth in the fourth quarter was largely a story of strong export performance in both Germany and Japan. Domestic consumption remained congenitally weak in both cases.In Germany, as Bloomberg reports:Booming exports drove an unexpected acceleration in German economic growth in the fourth quarter, capping the best year for Europe's largest economy since 2000.

BoJ: No Hurry To Raise Rates

Bank of Japan policy board member Hidehiko Haru has underlined what most Bonobo readers should already know, that internal consumption in Japan is week and that there's no threat that rising prices will cripple economic growth. Conclusion: there's no hurry to raise rates:``Given that there's no evidence of any inflationary risk, there's no need to rush,'' Haru, 69, said today in a speech to