Recent Updates
- ** New Zealand's jobs online report has been delayed by the source, MBIE, until 6:00 PM ET 4/26.**
- New Zealand: Foreign Currency Assets & Liabilities & Currency Flows (Mar); Australia: Labor Force Survey (Mar), Import/Export Price Indexes, SME Business Survey (Q1), Cash Flow Statements, Government Finance Statistics (2017)
- Japan: Input Output Prices, Lease Contracts (Mar), First 10 Days Trade (Apr), International Trade (Mar-Final)
- Brunei: International Trade (Dec); Korea: GDP (Q1); China:
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
Japan Shows Very Moderate Growth As Trade War Clouds Gather
Japan’s sector indexes showed a solid gain in February...
U.S. Consumer Confidence Unexpectedly Rose in April
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose to 128.7 in April from 127.0 (initially reported as 127.7) in March...
U.S. New Home Sales and Prices Strengthen
Sales of new single-family homes during March increased 4.0% (8.8% y/y) to 694,000 (SAAR)...
U.S. FHFA House Price Index Continues to Strengthen
The FHFA index of U.S. house prices rose 0.6% during February...
U.S. Energy Prices Rise Further
Retail gasoline prices increased to $2.80 per gallon last week (14.3% y/y)...
by Robert Brusca February 28, 2008
Japan’s dip in IP in January is hard to evaluate right now. IP trends are moving lower but the Yr/Yr rate is still steady. The shorter term sequential growth rates, in the table below, show that the recent weakness is an artifact of the 3-month growth rates alone. Six-month growth rates are higher that 12-month rates for Total MFG and total industry. But textiles output, investment goods and minting show erosion between the 6 and 12-month horizons. All sectors and industries see declines in January and all are lower over three months except electricity and gas producers.
| Japan Industrial Production Trends | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| m/m % | Saar % | Yr/Yr | |||||
| Jan-08 | Dec-07 | Nov-07 | 3-mo | 6-mo | 12-mo | Yr-Ago | |
| Mining & Mfg | -2.0% | 1.4% | -1.6% | -8.3% | 3.2% | 2.5% | 3.2% |
| Total Industry | -2.3% | 1.7% | -1.3% | -7.6% | 3.9% | 2.6% | 2.6% |
| Mfg | -1.9% | 1.4% | -1.6% | -8.3% | 3.4% | 2.5% | 3.2% |
| Textiles | -2.3% | 2.5% | -2.2% | -7.7% | -7.4% | -5.0% | -4.2% |
| Transport | -3.2% | 2.4% | -2.9% | -14.2% | 31.5% | 11.6% | 4.6% |
| Product Group | |||||||
| Consumer Goods | -1.5% | 2.1% | -2.1% | -6.1% | 13.2% | 4.2% | -0.8% |
| Intermediate Goods | -2.6% | 1.3% | -1.1% | -9.4% | 3.6% | 4.3% | 3.8% |
| Investment Goods | -0.4% | -0.6% | -1.9% | -11.1% | -7.6% | -3.4% | 5.8% |
| Mining | -2.9% | 1.1% | -5.9% | -27.2% | -15.9% | -5.1% | 3.5% |
| Electric & Gas | -1.4% | 0.2% | 2.0% | 3.2% | 15.2% | 5.9% | -2.8% |
