Japan’s Slower Wage Growth Adds to Reasons for BOJ to Hold
- Nominal wage growth slumps, while deeper trend mostly steady
- BOJ monitoring 2024 wage gain prospects to set policy path
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Headline wage growth for Japanese workers slowed sharply in November, an unwelcome development for the Bank of Japan as it seeks evidence of a virtuous cycle linking pay hikes to price increases as a prerequisite for normalizing monetary policy.
Nominal cash earnings for workers rose 0.2% from the previous year, decelerating sharply from a 1.5% increase in October, the labor ministry said Wednesday. Economists had expected the pace to hold steady. Real wages declined 3%, much deeper than the consensus call for a 2% drop.