The full day’s inflation figures are here, and the preview is here.
The ‘national’ figures all came in negative y/y. And they came in lower than expected (except ex. food and energy, that was on expectations). OK, these were March figures, before the new BOJ policy (but after about 4 months of jawboning of aiming for a higher inflation rate (when I say ‘higher’, at least >0 would be a start). These figures don’t contain any good news for the BOJ.
The “Tokyo’ figures all came in still showing negative inflation (i.e still showing deflation). I’ll put on my rose-coloured glasses and say that the results, though, were above expectations. Which is something good, I suppose (but not much). These figures were from April, so they should be starting to show at least initial impacts from the new BOJ policies (announced April 4). Like I said,k they are a bit better than expected, so at least thats a positive.
There isn’t much to cheer the BOJ in these figures today.
Meanwhile, the yen is not bothered. It is unchanged around 99.35/40. The markets focus is on the BOJ later today. Previews here:
The BOJ has a one-day meeting today: What to expect and when to expect it?
