Japan’s September inflation report is due Friday, giving the Bank of Japan a fresh price reading before its Oct. 29-30 meeting as the yen trades near ¥158 per dollar.
Reuters reported the yen at ¥158.15 per dollar, up 0.2% during Asian trading Tuesday, Oct. 20. It connected the advance with the 20-year Japanese government bond sale, where the bid-to-cover ratio reached 5.84, compared with 4.01 at the previous auction.
Japan’s Statistics Bureau lists the nationwide September consumer price index (CPI) for Friday, Oct. 23, without giving a release time. The August nationwide figures put the index excluding fresh food 1.7% above its year-earlier level; headline CPI and the index excluding fresh food and energy each rose 1.9%. Traders Web reported that SMBC Nikko Securities expects the fresh-food-excluded measure to rise 2.1% in September. That is one firm’s forecast, not an official result or a consensus estimate.
A preliminary September reading for Tokyo’s 23 wards put consumer prices excluding fresh food 2.7% higher than a year earlier. The measure excluding fresh food and energy rose 3.0%. Those figures cover Tokyo, not Japan as a whole.
The BOJ set its overnight call rate at roughly 1.25%, effective Sept. 24, in a 7-2 vote. One opinion in its September meeting summary said the indicators did not conclusively show underlying inflation at 2%; another said it had generally reached 2%. Reuters reported that Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda told parliament on Oct. 19 that underlying inflation was “quite close” to the target.
The BOJ’s next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 29-30, and its next policy statement is due Oct. 30. The national CPI release is the next scheduled inflation data point before that decision.
