It has been something of an economic tenet for a while now that the most dynamic part of the world economy is to be found in the Pacific region. However the credit crunch era has thrown up all sorts of challenges to what were established ideas and it is doing so again right now. The particular issue is what was supposed to be a strength which is trade and we saw another worrying sign on Wednesday.
The Monetary Policy Board of the Bank of Korea decided today to lower the Base Rate by 25 basis points, from 1.50% to 1.25%.
That is South Korea as we continue our journey past 750 interest-rate cuts in the credit crunch era. Here is their answer to Carly Simon’s famous question, why?
Economic growth in Korea has continued to slow. Private consumption has slowed somewhat, while investment has remained weak. Exports have sustained their sluggish trend as the export prices of semiconductors, petroleum products and chemicals have continued to fall amid the weakening of global trade.
So we see that the economy has been hit by trade issues and that unsurprisingly this has hit investment but also that it has fed through into domestic consumption. Next we got further confirmation that they are blaming trade as we wonder what is Korean for Johnny Foreigner?
Affected mainly by worsening global economic conditions, the growth of the Korean economy is expected to fall back below the July projection…….. The downside risks include a spread of global trade disputes, a heightening of geopolitical risks and a deepening global
economic slowdown.
We also see that the Korean government has already acted.
Among the upside risks to the growth outlook are an improvement in domestic demand thanks to a strengthening of government policies to shore up the economy and progress in US-China trade negotiations.
Quarterly economic growth has been erratic so far this year but Xinhuanet gives us an idea of the trend.
From a year earlier, the real GDP grew 2 percent in the second quarter. It was lower than an increase of 2.8 percent for the same quarter of 2017 and a growth of 2.9 percent for the same quarter of 2018.
Singapore
On the one hand the outlook is supposed to be bright.
Singapore has knocked the United States out of the top spot in the World Economic Forum’s annual competitiveness report. The index, published on Wednesday, takes stock of an economy’s competitive landscape, measuring factors such as macroeconomic stability, infrastructure, the labor market and innovation capability. ( CNN )
The good cheer was not repeated in this from the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Monday.
According to the Advance Estimates released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry today, the Singapore economy grew by 0.1% year-on-year in Q3 2019, similar to the preceding quarter. In the last six months, the drag on GDP growth exerted by the manufacturing sector has intensified, reflecting the ongoing downturn in the global electronics cycle as well as the pullback in investment spending, caused in part by the uncertainty in US-China relations.
They are very sharp with the GDP number perhaps helped by being a City state. The future does not look too bright either if we look through the rhetoric.
On the whole, Singapore’s GDP growth is projected to come in at around the mid-point of the 0–1% forecast range in 2019 and improve modestly in 2020.
The Straits Times has fone a heroic job trying to make the data below look positive.
Non-oil domestic exports (Nodx) fell by 8.1 per cent in September, a somewhat better showing than the 9 percent fall in August, according to data released by Enterprise Singapore on Thursday (Oct 17).
This was the third month in a row where shipments improved, and the August figure – revised downwards from the 8.9 per cent fall previously reported – also marked a return to single-digit territory after five consecutive months of double-digit declines.
But many eyes will have turned to this bit.
Electronics products weighed down Nodx, shrinking 24.8 per cent year-on-year in September, following a 25.9 per cent contraction in August.
China
This morning has brought the news we were pretty much expecting.
China’s economic growth slowed in the third quarter amid weak demand at home and as the trade war with the U.S. drags on exports.
Gross domestic product rose 6% in the July-September period from a year ago, the slowest pace since the early 1990s and weaker than the consensus forecast of 6.1%. Factory output rose 5.8% in September, retail sales expanded 7.8%, while investment gained 5.4% in the first nine months of the year. ( Bloomberg ).
Back on the 21st of January I pointed out this.
The M1 money supply statistics show us that growth was a mere 1.5% over 2018 which is a lot lower than the other economic numbers coming out of China and meaning that we can expect more slowing in the early part of 2019. No wonder we have seen some policy easing and I would not be surprised if there was more of it.
The numbers have been slipping away ever since although Bloomberg tries to put a brave face on it. After all you fo not want to upset the Chinese as you might find yourself like the NBA.
Even with the slowdown, year to date growth of 6.2% suggests the government can hit its 6% and 6.5% for 2019.
Actually M1 money supply growth picked up after January to as high as 4.4% but has now fallen back to 3.4%. So the easing has helped and we are not looking at an “end of the world as we know it” scenario in domestic terms but rather caution.
Before I move on let me point out the consequences of the African swine fever outbreak in the pig industry.
Of which, livestock meat price up by 46.9 percent, affecting nearly 2.03 percentage points increase in the CPI (price of pork was up by 69.3 percent, affecting nearly 1.65 percentage points increase in the CPI), poultry meat up by 14.7 percent, affecting nearly 0.18 percentage point increase in the CPI. ( China Bureau of Statistics )
Japan
Overnight the Cabinet Office has informed us that the Bank of Japan is getting ever further away from its inflation target.
The consumer price index for Japan in September 2019 was 101.9 (2015=100), up 0.2% over the year before seasonal adjustment, and the same level as the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis.
They will of course torture the numbers to find any flicker so if you here about furniture and household utensils ( up 2.7%) that will be why.
Next month the issue will be solved by the Consumption Tax rise but of course that takes money out of workers and consumers pockets at a time of economic trouble. What could go wrong?
Comment
As you can see there are plenty of signs of economic trouble in the Pacific region. Many of these countries are used to much higher rates of economic growth than us in the west. According to Bloomberg Indonesia is worried too.
Indonesia‘s central bank has room to cut interest rates further, perhaps as soon as next week, says its deputy governor
Then of course there is the Reserve Bank of Australia which is cutting interest-rates at a rapid rate. In fact Deputy Governor Debelle gave a speech in Sydney updating us on his priority.
The housing market has a pervasive impact on the Australian economy. It is the popular topic of any number of conversations around barbeques and dinner tables. It generates reams of newspaper stories and reality TV shows. You could be forgiven for thinking that the housing market IS the Australian economy.[1] That clearly is not the case. But at the same time, developments in the housing market, both the established market and housing construction, have a broader impact than the simple numbers would suggest.