TOKYO – The most surprising thing about Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reshuffling his Cabinet is that he actually thinks he’s running Asia’s No 2 economy.
That would actually be Kazuo Ueda, who in April took the controls at the Bank of Japan. This vital distinction matters more than ever as Governor Ueda hints at a policy shift that, if enacted, is sure to roil global markets.
It’s nice that Kishida on Wednesday pledged new support measures to stabilize economic growth. Data released 24 hours later showed that private machinery orders fell a bigger-than-feared 1.1% in July month on month. Manufacturing orders fell 5.3% on the month.
Overall, concludes economist Stefan Angrick at Moody’s Analytics, “unsteady domestic demand, high inflation and policy uncertainty are risks to the capex outlook.”