East Asia Econ

No surprises today from the BOK: it still wants to see inflation come down further. But it was important that the bank once again highlighted upside risks to inflation from "exchange rate volatility".

This week's consumer and business surveys show recovering exports, weak domestic sentiment, but firm headline inflation. The BOK is unlikely to shift policy.

Headline developments in the labour market are consistent with the BOK's outlook for a moderation in tightness. However, the big structural changes – such as the rise in female part rate – mean these headline developments don't tell the whole story.

Core inflation looks controlled, but headline continues to run around 3%. Leading indicators don't suggest that goods prices pressures are about to subside quickly. One reason is the weakness of the KRW and as a result, our model still isn't flashing the risk of a near term change in policy.

Q1 GDP was solid, but the weakness in business sentiment in April makes us feel economic momentum is incrementally weaker. The consumer survey showed price expectations remaining elevated, which fits with weekly price data showing no big slowdown in food or energy price inflation through April.

The BOK today sounded confident that core is coming down, but argued that headline is more uncertain. Of course, these two measures are different, but the distinction still feels disingenuous, and gives the impression that the bank is just trying to buy a bit more time.

With headline CPI still above target and the US-Korean yield gap widening, we don't think the BOK is ready to cut yet. However, the weakness of economic activity and the softening of core inflation raise the likelihood of a dissenting vote.

Headline inflation ticked up in March, but our measures of underlying inflation have now closed in on 2%. The central bank will be able to give more attention to the weakness of the domestic economy.

There has been a recovery in Korean manufacturing activity, but it remains sluggish, with export growth stalling at around 10% YoY, and the PMI dipping back below 50 in March.

Business sentiment in Korea still isn't recovering. Exporter confidence has lifted, but continues to be offset by weakness among domestic firms. Price expectations in the consumer survey yesterday were probably still too high for the BOK's liking, but the probability of a BOK rate cut is growing

Consumer confidence remains around the historical average, which is not strong enough to remove BOJ concern about the sluggishness of the domestic economy. However, the March survey doesn't give the bank the all-clear to act, with price expectations picking up for the second consecutive month.

The main takeaway from the BOK minutes for February was concern about the weakness of consumption. Inflation being above target means that policymakers don't feel able to react to that yet, but the bank is sounding more doveish, and will turn further in that direction if exports disappoint.

Inflation ticked up in February. That was expected by the BOK, and the details don't look particularly strong, with core stable, and trimmed mean continuing to fall. There is still an argument that inflation will be sticky, with personal services inflation remaining over 2%.