Japan inflation slows to 3.1% in February

Japan inflation slows to 3.1% in February

Slow? But there's no sign price will go back right?

Yeah,sure it has.

Hogwash.

@eastman

at a .s, just check prices at shops for food as good example,3.1% is fabricated unreal random number only...

I would say they are up 20% or more compare to one year ago. Yesterday I noticed that the iced latte at family mart was up 40 % to compare to one year ago!

Try including food in that figure and it’s way above!

Lies lies and dam statistics...but seriously, easy to manage this number and one must never forget the Govt. busy printing money/new bonds to 'buy' lower food and energy prices, monies paid to corps to refrain from passing on their real costs.

Biggest winners, well Govt. sales tax receipts obviously and Corp. margins, as they ain't absorbing even 1 yen of price increases, purely a legitimate profit 'chance' while the country's depopulation and aging picks up steam as a result!

This validates the BOJ’s sound decision not to raise interest rates like the US and the UK that have caused the US banks to lose money on their long-term bonds.

US raising their interests rate crash their banks because most of these banks spend tons of money buying government bonds when they were worth more before the raising of the interest rates. Raising interest rate will cause bond prices to go down which makes them lose tons of money.

On a side note. The yen is finally strengthening. So in a way, the BOJ weren't wrong. They stood their ground and manage to weather the storm. They knew the US and EU couldn't keep this going forever.

2 of the greatest necessities of a modern society are food and energy, so not including these vital components in any assessment is just smudging the figures.

Prices in these areas are hitting people - you know the commoners - really hard.

Not an opinion, just fact.

The only way Japan has any hope of escaping the debt black hole that it is in is to inflate it away. Japan needs more inflation.

The roterisserie chicken at Costco has gone up 100 yen to 800 yen. So 14.7%. That's for a whole chicken, probably three meals for the buyer and a loss leader for the seller, but still. That's a big 100 yen if your wages aren't rising.

I know the Japanese government excludes food, but I don't know how they get 3.5% if it includes electricity, which has skyrocketed.

All the foods have shrinked for the same price to make it look like there was never an price hike I point at you CALBEE chips! I rather by american chips LAYS

The slice on those sushi at the super has shrank too for the same price dont waste your money

I know the Japanese government excludes food, but I don't know how they get 3.5% if it includes electricity, which has skyrocketed.

Dont expect them to care, they only care about the military they a trying to build up for war with china

They have billions to spend on U.S bombs but really don't care about people hit hard by sky rocketing prices of energy and food.

Smh.

not including these vital components in any assessment is just smudging the figures.

Not really. Fresh food and energy tend to be volatile, and fluctuate depending on such things as the climate, in the case of fresh food, or whether Putin steps up or backs down from his weaponization of energy exports. They don't tell us much about price pressures within our own economy.

Seriously folks, underlying inflation problem stems from decrease in global food production, largely due to loss of fertilizers due to Ukraine/Russian war and their significant food production.

Global crop yields falling like a rock as the fertilizer stockpiles disappear, that's the cold hard reality.

Why not announce major food production initiatives? Clearly more supply desperately needed. We hear plenty about semi-conductors, energy and weapons!

Then again, Govt. LOVES these increases, more sales tax revenue, eat away at savings, forces people to 'unretire', plus these food companies surcharging are upping their political contributions, so don't hold your breath regarding real food supply policies!

I'm not sure what they are talking about the gov't helping with energy costs. Gasoline has stayed the same or risen here since early January. The same for kerosene. So where is this help with energy costs. I haven't checked my electricity bill but I don't think it is down either. As for food prices, that is what most consumers see on a daily basis, and it hits our wallets every time we go out to buy food, leading to the real pain and suffering from rising prices!

jefflee - thanks for your response.

Yes - we all know about food and energy prices being volatile - it's fed to us everyday by the govt.

But what isn't volatile?

Is the price of iron ore volatile? Or any other number of commodities. How about rare earths, lumber, rubber, gold, etc etc?

The point I was making was food & energy prices are a Daily Reality for most people.

They're not an abstract construct to float in economic discussions.

They impact directly on the living standards of ordinary people. ie the quality of life.

Can I feed my children well?

Can I run heating in freezing winter?

Food & Energy costs are the metric by which Many Folks balance their delicate budgets.

It's Real for them.

For the govt to not include something in it's "figures" that is so critical for the daily life of it's citizens is disingenuous.

It's only done to obfuscate hardship and present a false glowing image of their policies.

Over half word's fertilizer was sourced from Ukraine and Russia prior to invasion, we've been working down stockpiles. Not to mention their direct contribution to global food supplies which is now greatly reduced.

Take it you're not an analyst but crop yields correlate with fertilizer usage. Top analysts expect global food production this year to fall in many cases even 10% or even more. World never had a real food safety 'margin'!

Let's not forget the strong dollar and crazy money printing, food inflation is most of the world in the last year is high double digits, even triple digits.

Oh yeah, it's happening, anyone else remember a time the BOJ was PAYING food companies to NOT raise prices!!!?!! IT's real whether you like it or not and it's not an accident but rather Putin exerting his power, making voters like YOU ALL unhappy!

So, inflation is still rising.

An after effect of the government's poor approach to the Covid crisis.

Clay

Your idea is that the main objective of the war in Ukraine for Russia is to destabilize the west through inflation resulting from food and energy price increase?

Inflation is from the world energy crisis, not the covid pandemic. More costly energy imports.

Your idea is that the main objective of the war in Ukraine for Russia is to destabilize the west through inflation resulting from food and energy price increase?

It's war right, many types of weapons and certainly Putin's not taking ANY off the table. He could end the war anytime using EMP weapons, he's done so before.

He chooses to prolong this war to cause damage to the proxy countries using Ukraine to fight their war. Turns out after a pandemic, massive debt buildup, many supply chains damaged, global economy is very fragile.

What could possibly be worse for Putin's real adversaries than unhappy voters tired of high prices and shortages?

Another cost he's imposing off course is weapons proliferation. That's expensive, causing all countries to take more seriously military threats from NK, Iran, China etc. That takes money, or more money printing actually!

Never in history have we seen such weapons proliferation in such a short time period. For example, every analyst at the CIA likely assumes NK and Iran NOW HAVE EMP weapons.

But inflation's the monster weapon, you're seeing it play out in the financial markets, long durations assets being destroyed in value, credit markets being damaged as banks balance sheets are weakened and profits fall etc.

Putin understand what a toxic house of cards the global markets are presently, and it's centered in the central banks. He's got NO SUCH FINANCIAL CONTAGION MARKET RISK with credit markets freezing up etc.

wallaceToday  03:58 pm JST

Inflation is from the world energy crisis, not the covid pandemic. More costly energy imports.

Kind of out of touch the last three years.

Japanese inflation

2020 -0.0%

2021 -0.2%

2022 2.5%

2023 3.3%

https://www.rateinflation.com/inflation-rate/japan-inflation-rate/

Nobody needs PhD in finance to understand inflation's destroying assets priced for basically no inflation, that would be entire Japanese economy and its many financial assets, that ALL assumed no inflation was possible given demographic collapse, aging, advances in technology etc.

Turns out long term bonds priced to pay around 1% don't reprice very well when inflation's many times higher than original expectations of close to ZERO %.

Consider the BOJ's balance sheet, the assets if marked to market would result in a financial loss FAR greater than the size of the entire economy, now that's toxic!

Any surprise +25% of official GDP will be based on money printing debt issuance at the BOJ this year ALONE?!

Exactly how happy do you think this money printing makes world at large? Pretty safe bet all these geopolitical adversaries are none too happy about this ponzi scheme and toilet paper reserve currencies, might as well include the entire developing world for good measure!

It's also SUCH an important point that the Nikkei 225 in the last 30 years has increased approx. 50%. US S&P 500, approx. 900%.

Put another way, 1$ invested passively in the Nikkei would now be $1.50, S&P 500 would be $10

Really expect durable wage-based productivity inflation given the above OBJECTIVE UNDER performance?

Real CORE reason for ALL OF JAPAN'S PROBLEMS

Why this UNDERPERFORMANCE?

Mind you, US Central Bank wasn't busy buying ANY EQUITY ETFs either, likely if you strip out BOJ money printing game, Nikkei's DOWN/NEGATIVE REAL RETURN

In a word? Galapagos!

Real problem's open-ended global inflation fire being fueled by the Ukraine Russian proxy war, which will break global financial system at some point, that's the whole Putin 'inflation' playbook folks, asset prices crashing, starvation, energy shortages, weapons proliferation...so buckle and stockpile up!

Let's also not forget EXPENSIVE INFLATIONARY nature of war, especially proxy wars entail outfitting and equipping and feeding all of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, weapons proliferation Putin's pursuing like gangbusters, requires major homeland military investments. After all just NK's nuclear, EMP, drone, submarine, hypersonic missile, etc. capabilities all require EXPENSIVE upgrades to domestic capabilities.

But mother of all costs is inflation, after all just the incremental spending to sustain the above military spending is no small matter but the inflation acts to destroy the economy itself. Assets are written down, consumers and businesses forced to spend on survival, so productive and needed investment disappears, not to mention consumer confidence.

Meanwhile, growing crushing debt load grows while economy continues to falter, like slow-moving train wreck that's well under way and no amount of money printing will stop this process, as inflation's cancer that when unchecked continues to destroy financial assets, banking system and economic output.

That's certainly what's now happening, ONLY off-ramp is an end to the exiled oligarch's proxy war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, China's relatively 'unscathed', safe harbor loving every minute of this Ukraine proxy war madness!