Daily Market Notes
Japan's Import Prices Rose 1.0 Per Cent and Fell 0.2 Per Cent in the Same Month
The Bank of Japan's September producer price release carries one month of import prices with two signs: up 1.0 per cent month-on-month in contract currency, down 0.2 per cent in yen. A 1.2-point gap that is not a price but the exchange rate. Exports show the same shape, up 1.4 against up 0.5. The headline slowed to 6.8 per cent from an August 7.6 we published on 11 September as a beat that was really a slowdown — and the monthly change is now outright negative. Meanwhile import prices in yen are up 24.5 per cent on the year against a domestic 6.8, a 17.7-point wedge. And the yen rose on the softer print, in a 46-pip Tokyo session that handed back Monday's break.