Economic calendar in Asia Tuesday, 14 May 2024 – lower tier data only

A light calendar for the session ahead. The PPI from Japan is of some interest with the intense focus on inflation developments., and therefore policy developments, in the country. Only yesterday we had a big gun in Japan’s governing party refer to inflation and how it’ll impact policy ahead. His comments pretty much coincided with news out of the BOJ that they had trimmed back JGB purchases. These two combined sent USD/JPY on a little slide where, as I pointed out, the dip buyers could load up again:

Japan’s Kato says its natural that monetary policy will revert to positive interest rates

Even earlier than this I highlighted the topside target:

• around 156.26 … I said last week this is an initial target, and I still think so.

I love it when a plan comes together.

This snapshot from the ForexLive economic data calendar, access it here.

The times in the left-most column are GMT.

The numbers in the right-most column are the ‘prior’ (previous month/quarter as the case may be) result. The number in the column next to that, where there is a number, is the consensus median expected.

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The Producer Price Index (PPI) in Japan is also known as the Corporate Goods Price Index (CGPI)

• its a measure of the average change over time in the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output
• is calculated by the Bank of Japan

Unlike the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the price change that consumers see for a basket of goods and services, the CGPI focuses on the change in the prices of goods sold by companies.

The PPI reflects some of cost pressures faced by producers

• its based on a basket of goods that represents the range of products produced within the Japanese economy, including items such as:
  • raw materials like metals and chemicals
  • semi-finished goods
  • and finished products
  • different weights are assigned to each category within the index based on its contribution to the overall economy.
• it does not account for the quality improvements in goods and services over time, which might lead to overestimation of inflation
  • additionally, it reflects only the prices of domestically produced goods, leaving out the impact of imported goods

The PPI can be used as a guide to inflationary pressures in the economy:

• If producers are facing higher costs, they may pass these on to consumers, leading to higher consumer prices.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.