Japan's leading economic index, which gauges the future direction of economic activity, rose to 117.9 points in July from 116.5 in June, according to preliminary data from the Cabinet Office released Monday.
The preliminary reading beat the Trading Economics forecast of 116.8.
Thailand's headline consumer price index rose 2.53% in August from a year earlier, accelerating from a 1.95% increase in July, the country's Trade Policy and Strategy Office said ̨Monday.The reading exceeded analysts' expectations for a 2.20% increase, according to Investing.com data.Core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and fresh food prices, rose 1.44% in August from a year earlier, faster than the 1.34% increase in July and against analysts' 1.33% consensus forecast.
More Australians are seeking extra work amid cost-of-living pressures, pushing the multiple job holder rate to a record high 6.9% in the second quarter, Westpac said in its Q2 Labor Account report Monday.The data showed filled jobs rising by 111,000 in the second quarter following a 135,000 gain in the first quarter and earlier increases over the second half of last year.Westpac said a 52,000 lift in secondary jobs over the second quarter nearly matched the 59,000 gain in main jobs."A rise in multiple job holdings is consistent with our earlier observations on the impact of cost-of-living concerns, leading many individuals to seek extra hours of work or additional jobs in order to buffer against these pressures," the bank said.It added that the jobs growth strength indicates labor demand and supply are settling around a firmer level than implied by the monthly labor force survey alone, where employment growth has been considerably softer.However, Westpac cautioned that the labor market is further downstream from shocks emanating from the Middle East conflict, so the second-quarter data is still largely feeding off an earlier economic recovery and may not fully reflect the more challenging conditions that have now emerged.
The value of new payments platform transactions in Australia jumped nearly 25% year over year to AU$260.6 billion in July, according to retail payment data from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on Monday.Total card purchases on Australian-issued cards was up 8.3% to AU$100.1 billion, with credit and charge cards accounting for AU$40.6 billion and debit cards for AU$59.5 billion.Meanwhile, the number of new payments platform transactions reached 176.2 million in July, up over 14% year over year.The number of total card purchases on Australian-issued cards rose 5.3% on an annual basis to 1.42 billion.