Japan

We’ve added data related to wage negotiations sourced from RENGO, Japan’s trade union confederation. Japanese companies’ fiscal year is usually April 1-March 31, so unions’ wage talks therefore tend to occur in February or March. This explains RENGO’s concept of “Spring Life Struggle” – and the name of the series now available in Macrobond: “Spring wage negotiations.”

In the chart below, we display the average annual salary increase resulting from these negotiations alongside domestic inflation. Small wage increases can be seen in 2009 and 2014, when there were previous spikes in inflation. However, this time is different. Negotiations this spring led to the steepest salary increases in 30 years – an average of more than 3.5 percent. If this becomes a trend, will it lead to a wage-price spiral? 

Malaysia

We’ve added detailed regional foreign trade data: customers can now access exports and imports for Malaysia’s individual states. 

In the chart below, we display a summary of this information using the last known data points. At a glance, we can identify the three most influential states for the country’s overall trade balance: Penang (on the northwestern coast), Johor (on the border with Singapore), and Selangor (circling Kuala Lumpur) – the latter notable for a negative trade balance.  

China

Transaction data for the Chinese foreign exchange market is now available in Macrobond. This data can be broken down per “product type” (spot, swaps, forwards, and options), as well as per maturity (when available) and sales versus purchase.

In the chart below, we display the product-type breakdown. FX swaps have become steadily more popular since 2015, and now represent more than half the volume of transactions.