Valuable Japanese Economic Events

Japan is a big global manufacturer and its economy is greatly depended upon exports. The country, however, is not particularly rich in natural resources, which makes Japan a main importer of raw materials as well. This idiosyncrasy of the Japanese economy needs to be maintained on a delicate balance of importing-exporting. Japan primarily competes with other mass exporting countries, such as China, and for this reason purposefully tries to keep the value of its currency low to keep the prices of its exported goods attractive to foreign buyers. As you can already see, the most important economic events in the Japanese economy are those that determine the value of the currency and track the health of manufacturing.

Monetary Policy Statement: The Bank of Japan meets about 14 times a year to discuss the country’s monetary policy. The statement released at the end of the meeting contains the bankers’ decision regarding interest rates which is accompanied by a commentary on the economic reasons that have led to the decision. Investors watch this event closely, which is always scheduled as “tentative” until it actually takes place, not only because it has an immediate impact on the strength of the yen against its major peers, but also because it gives clues as to the economic outlook of future rate decisions.

BOJ Press Conference: The press conference by the Bank of Japan follows soon after the monetary policy statement and communicates to investors the factors that affected the most recent interest rates decision. It also discusses issues of inflation and economic outlook which shed further light on future monetary policy.

Speeches by BOJ Governor: The Governor of the Bank of Japan is seen as they primary representative of the institution’s policy and his speeches play on investor sentiment towards the economy, which makes them highly anticipated. During these speeches investors scrutinise the Governor’s language in light of practical interest rates policy, the currency market often experiences great volatility in relation to the yen.

Tankan Manufacturing Index: The data of this index is released every quarter by the Bank of Japan and it shows the health of the most crucial industry of the Japanese economy. The report, which surveys about 1,200 large manufacturers on the relative level of general business conditions, provides the best insight to the industry’s health on account of its wide scope. A measurement of above 0.0 indicates improving manufacturing conditions while measurements below 0.0 mean conditions are worsening.

Tokyo Core CPI: The Core Consumer Price Index records the change in the price of goods and services sold to consumers. With Tokyo being Japan’s largest city, this yearly report, which comes out a month before the national report, is the most important indicator of consumer inflation in the Japanese economy. On account of the country’s tame inflation policy, however, the effect of the report can be quite mild and usually without great changes anticipated.