Japanese data whiffs

Japanese retail sales and industrial production figures for August released this morning have missed to the downside, an outcome that will almost certainly see expectations for further monetary policy easing from the Bank of Japan rise in the months ahead.

Industrial production fell 0.5% in August, an improvement on the 0.8% contraction seen in July but below expectations for an increase of 1%.

"Industries that mainly contributed to the decrease were general-purpose, production, and business-oriented machinery, electrical machinery, and transport equipment, in that order," said the Japanese Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry.

Looking further ahead, firms indicated that production will rise 0.1% in September before accelerating to 4.4% in October.

Completing the dour data set, retail sales grew by 0.8% in the year to August. Despite the expansion, the figure missed expectations for growth of 1.1% and marked the slowest expansion seen since March.

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