business

Japan inflation tepid, spending falls in June

13 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© 2015 AFP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

13 Comments
Login to comment

With the population of Japan shrinking and with no immigration inflows then surely it would be logical to assume that prices fall as demand shrinks?

TPTB in Japan obviously fail to comprehend this....

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Anyone else noticed not only the price increases of popular food items, but the smaller packaging? It's the little things that really grind my gears...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Massive government spending is counterproductive, this is the obvious conclusion to draw from decades of this crap in Japan.

Point #1 - There has been no "massive government spending" in Japan. There has been a consumption tax increase and a lot of "Quantitative Easing", AKA QE. The first is the opposite of "massive government spending", the second a complete waste of everybody's time. Just a game of 3 Card Monte for the suckers.

Point #2 - The "Obvious Conclusion" has been debunked 1000's of times over the decades. But we all know that ideologues don't care about such things as "facts" or "evidence". And they have no clue whatsoever what the word "debunk" means. So expect the stupid to continue, on and on and on and on and on and....

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Maybe I'm stupid and economics just aren't my cup of tea. What's wrong with less stimulus, a stronger yen, stronger consumer purchasing power (like the Chines renminbi or Korean won so Japanese can afford to travel again), and buy cheaper imports, go to restaurants, and enjoy life again?

Nichikolohe, your understanding is perfectly fine. All those things are great, if you're a regular member of the wage-earning public. As Mr_JGB has explained, mild deflation and a strong currency are ideal for working folks.

The problem is that the government wants to devalue the huge debts it has run up (be stealthily confiscating the value of the people's savings), and transfer as much as possible of that wealth from all those middle class people to the ultra-rich and connected, while spouting nonsensical justifications that will fool just enough people to prevent the public from getting angry.

With seemingly every media platform fully on board, his propaganda is working better than that time when Tom Sawyer (or was it Huck Finn?) convinced all the neighbors to whitewash the fence for him and see that as fun rather than labor. Pro-Abe/Kuroda language is everywhere; even in this article, the negative-sounding word "tepid" is used for the lower-than expected inflation rate, rather than what the public should be thinking, which is more along the lines of "thank God, prices didn't go up as much as those thieves wanted them to!" Look between the lines when reading articles (including those on this site) and listening to television reporting. They all treat inflation and devaluation as positive things when this is clearly not in the public interest. Once you see it, you can no longer un-see it.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

No mention of WHY spending dropped. Perhaps the people have LESS DISPOSABLE INCOME due to MugABEnomics?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

"Core inflation, excluding volatile fresh food prices, edged up 0.1 percent"

What was core inflation including the volatile fresh food prices (price increases )?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

jerseyboy,

Makes one wonder just how bad the actual fundamentals of the economy are, if over three years of massive government spending have not kick-started things.

Massive government spending is counterproductive, this is the obvious conclusion to draw from decades of this crap in Japan.

mr_jgb,

Mild deflation or inflation will force the government truly to reduce excessive government spending and increase their productivity.

Yes, but it's hard to buy votes when cutting government spending, and the politicians of Japan are not of the quality that will ever go for such a path.

It's really up to the Japanese public to take a serious interest and vote for what is good for themselves and not their politician masters.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Japan needs mild deflation not 2% inflation. Reasons:

Japan population is aging and declining. Creating artificial inflation is unsustainable and only results in more asset inflation. Higher asset inflation only benefit a very small group of the population, the wealthy while the rest has to pay for higher asset prices like newly wedded couple buying their first apartment, or a family wanting to have more children upgrading into a bigger housing unit. Mild deflation or inflation will ensure the purchasing power of consumers and savers is stable. This is important as Japanese has large accumulated savings. Mild deflation or inflation will force the government truly to reduce excessive government spending and increase their productivity. It will also result in lower imported goods and services. So far a key result of Abenomics is the transferring purchasing power from the vast majority of general public to the few wealthy and big exporters.
-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Japanese inflation was tepid last month while household spending suffered a surprise drop, official data showed Friday

Yup, Abenomics in combination with the BOJ's "stimulus" program is just working wonders. Three years in, and fourteen months after the consumption tax increase, and the economy is still "weak". Makes one wonder just how bad the actual fundamentals of the economy are, if over three years of massive government spending have not kick-started things.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Maybe I'm stupid and economics just aren't my cup of tea. What's wrong with less stimulus, a stronger yen, stronger consumer purchasing power (like the Chines renminbi or Korean won so Japanese can afford to travel again), and buy cheaper imports, go to restaurants, and enjoy life again? We can't do any of that even with a raise and it only makes Japan more expensive for other currencies ( I.e. Tourists) too!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

fanning speculation the central bank would unleash a fresh round of stimulus.

Shuffling money between bond accounts and bank reserve accounts is not "stimulus". It is moving existing money from the right pocket to the left pocket and then moving it back again. Anybody at the BOJ or MOF who still hasn't figured that out is a moron and should be fired immediately. And if they have figured that out but still are pushing this rubbish they should be locked up for criminal negligence.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

I guess we just have to gambarimasu - more easing on the way?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The Abenomic miracle triumphs yet again.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites