Asian Economies for this Week

A number of significant data from Asian economies were in the scene on Friday, of which Japanese, South Korean leading indicators, Chinese Producer Price Index data and Indian inflation grabbed attention.

Indicating sharp slowdown in the Japanese economic growth, the leading indicator steeply dropped to 20 in March from February’s 54.5. According to the Cabinet Office, an index reading above 50 indicates economic expansion in the short term, while below 50 suggests contraction.

Similarly, the Coincident index that measures current economic situation plunged to 33.3 from 70 in the previous month. Both leading and coincident index readings matched economists’ expectations.

Elsewhere, the Ministry of Finance stated that Japan’s trade surplus for the first 20 days of April fell 15.9% year-on-year to JPY174.9 billion. Imports grew 1.3% to JPY4.423 trillion and exports stood at JPY4.248 trillion, up 2.1% year-on-year.

Separately, the ministry said in statement that Japan’s foreign reserves were down USD11.75 billion month-on-month to USD1.004 trillion in April.

The National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement that soaring energy costs pushed up Chinese producer price annual inflation to 8.1% in April from 8% in March. However, it stood at a lower level than the expected rate of 8.4%.

In South Korea, producer prices rose at the fastest pace in more than nine years on soaring oil and raw material costs. According to the Bank of Korea, the producer price index grew 9.7% year-on-year in April, faster than 8% growth in March.

The central bank said that the figure was the fastest annual increase since November 1998, when producer prices climbed 11%. Month-on-month, the index grew 2.6% in April versus 1.7% in March.

Elsewhere, the Conference Board reported that South Korea’s leading economic index declined 0.2% in March, slower than a sharp drop of 1.3% in February. However, the coincident index increased 0.2%.

India’s wholesale price index based inflation rose to 7.61% in the week ended April 26, edging up from 7.57% registered in the week before. This was the highest since November 13, 2004 when it rose to 7.68%.

Commenting on the inflation data, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said that the government will take more administrative steps if it becomes necessary to tame price rises.

A government data showed that Philippines’ merchandise exports fell 6.8% to USD4.18 billion in March due to weak global demand for electronic products.

 

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