China Adds Scope to Cut Rates as Japan, S. Korea Hold

China’s inflation and industrial production growth cooled in July, and central banks in Japan and South Korea saw little sign of price pressures, underscoring the scope for monetary stimulus should the European crisis deepen.

Consumer prices in China rose 1.8 percent in July from a year earlier and factory output increased the least since 2009, the National Bureau of Statistics said today in Beijing. The Bank of Korea said inflation will stay subdued, and the Bank of Japan anticipated that its benchmark gauge of prices will remain unchanged “for the time being.”