The Bank of Japan monetary policy meeting concludes today, announcement expected sometime in the 0230 to 0330GMT window
Ahead of that, here is an interesting little item.
Japan's Cabinet office produce a range of economic indicators. Some of them are well known and reported. But not all. One is the "Synthetic Consumption Index", and it comes out each month, but in Japanese only and is not widely publicised.
- The latest data was out yesterday, it showed consumption up 0.8% m/m in April
- Which is the biggest increase in 7 months
- On a 3-month MA basis its at its strongest for a year
- It is still under its high prior to the sales tax rate hike
Such a strong reading should auger well for higher household expenditure in coming months.
We have been seeing some indications from Japan of an improving economy, and this adds a little to those. The Bank of Japan target is a stable 2% inflation rate, and they are still woefully short of hitting that. But they'll be aware of building signs of improvement for the economy.
I'll have a BOJ preview up soon, but here's one I posted yesterday to kick off: BOJ monetary policy announcement due Friday - preview
--
The synthetic consumption index provides the closest fit to the GDP (i.e the national accounts) measure of household expenditure.
