Economic calendar in Asia for Good Friday, 28 March 2024 – big day for Japanese inflation!

Japanese (Tokyo) CPI, and jobs, data is due at 2330 GMT, which is 1930 US Eastern time.

The other data follows at 2350 / 1950.

Japanese and mainland China markets are open today.

• Asia time zone holidays today – who’s in and who’s out on Good Friday 2024

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For the headline Tokyo CPI the expected I’ve seen is 2.5%, slightly down from 2.6% but still above the Bank of Japan target level of 2%. Last week the Bank of Japan raised rates for the first time in 17 years. The decision was a drawn-out one. I linked to a piece from Reuters which looked at the process, and which implicitly raises the question of much independence the BOJ really has (a question plenty of people have raised before):

• “How the BOJ’s plan for a smooth exit from negative rates unraveled”

Yesterday we had the ‘Summary’ of that meeting published. In a nutshell the summary of the Summary is that it’ll be a very slow rate hike cycle going forward, which will keep yen under pressure as a carry currency.

• BOJ ‘Summary’ of the historic March 2024 meeting

As for today, I doubt the Tokyo area inflation data will be a smoking gun for a near term rate rise, but it’ll be an interesting data point regardless.

• National-level CPI data for this month will follow in about three weeks, it takes longer to gather and collate the national data.
• Tokyo CPI is a sub-index of the national CPI
• It measures the change in prices of goods and services in the Tokyo metropolitan area
• Its considered a leading indicator of national CPI trends because Tokyo is the largest city in Japan and is a major economic hub
• Historically, Tokyo CPI data has been just slightly higher than national Japan CPI data. The cost of living in Tokyo is a touch higher than in most other parts of Japan. Higher rents, for example

• 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.

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