This morning, Japan released a set of important economic data, which had a big effect on the Asian markets today. The most important ones were to report on the state of the Japanese economy and decide on interest rates. Later in the day, the new governor of the Bank of Japan, Kazuo Ueda, is set to hold a press conference to answer questions about monetary policy from journalists.
The interest rate was set at -0.1% by the Bank of Japan. While keeping Japan’s current monetary policy, which relies on devaluing the yen, because it makes Japanese products cheaper on foreign markets and makes them more competitive with goods from other countries.
The Statistical Center also announced the core consumer price index for April, which was higher than expected. However, the March unemployment rate from the same source was a bit disappointing. Also, the manufacturing production and retail sales indexes for March from the Japanese Ministry of Economy showed clear progress over what was predicted.
The Nikkei index in Japan went up more than 390 points, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong went up more than 120 points, and the Shanghai index in China went up more than 35 points.
In Australia, the ASX200 also went up because the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that the producer price index went up in the first quarter of 2023. And even though the markets are trying to get back to normal, investors’ worries about the US economy and the banking situation are still having an effect, which isn’t over yet. But we can say that the tension still remains, especially since the US GDP in the first quarter of the year was lower than expected.
The Dow Jones closed up more than 500 points, and the S&P 500 closed up more than 75 points. The personal consumption spending index for March is one of the most important numbers that will be released today. It is one of the numbers that experts use to figure out how much inflation there is in the country.
