Tag Archives: Japanese wage growth

The recent rise in wage growth is positive for consumption and puts pressure on inflation.Wage growth in Japan accelerated further in March. Nominal cash earnings rose by 2.1% y-o-y, the fastest growth since mid-2003. Base salaries increased by 1.3% y-o-y, the highest in nearly two decades, and the strong rise in bonuses (up 12.8% y-o-y) also contributed significantly to wage growth in March.Rising wage growth in Japan likely reflects the increasing labour market constraints in Japan. Since...

Although wage growth in Japan is picking up and our inflation forecast may face some modest upside risk, we do not expect a change in the BoJ’s policies in 2018.Anaemic in the past couple of years, wage growth in Japan finally seems to be picking up. In January and February 2018, the average nominal cash earnings of Japanese workers grew by 1.2% and 1.3% year-over-year (y-o-y) respectively, compared to average growth of 0.4% y-o-y in the previous 12 months.In our view, the rise in wage...

The first estimate for GDP in the second quarter surprised on the upside, pushing us to revise our full-year forecast. But we still believe the Bank of Japan will stick to current monetary policy.The first estimate of Japan’s Q2 GDP showed growth of 1.0% quarter over quarter (q-o-q) in real terms, or 4.0% annualised, beating the consensus estimates (1.6% annualised) by a wide margin. We have therefore decided to revise up our 2017 GDP forecast for Japan to 1.9% from 1.3%.Unlike previous...