Japan: Larger than expected September trade surplus - BBH
|Research Team at BBH, notes that the Japan started the week with the September trade balance and finishes the week with CPI.
Key Quotes
“Japan reported a larger than expected September trade surplus. The balance almost always improves in September. The September trade surplus increased to JPY498.3 bln from a JPY18.7 bln deficit in August. Economists had expected exports to have deteriorated, but they improved. Exports were off 6.9% from a year ago. In August they were off 9.6%.
Exports to the US fell 8.7%. Exports to China, Japan's biggest export market, fell 10.6%, while exports to the EU rose 0.7%. Imports fell 16.3% in September, after a 17.3% slide in August. Separately, Japan's flash manufacturing PMI rose to 51.7 from 50.4, for the second consecutive month above 50. It had been below that threshold since February.
While price pressures appear to have bottomed in most high income countries, Japan is a notable exception. Headline and core inflation (excludes fresh food) may have remained stuck at minus 0.5% in September. Using a similar US definition of core, which excludes food and energy, Japan's inflation likely slipped to 0.1%, down from 0.2% in August. It has been trending lower all year since reaching 0.9% last December.”
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