Tokyo's core consumer price index, which excludes fresh food, rose 1.3% in May from a year earlier, marking the slowest pace in four years, according to official government data on Friday.
The reading marks the sixth consecutive month of cooling in the capital.
Excluding both fresh food and energy, the print showed a 1.6% rise compared with 1.9% in April.
Headline CPI, which includes all items, grew 1.4%, slower than the 1.5% rise in April.
An analysis of tanker tracking data from Kpler showed that Japanese crude oil imports dropped 47% year-on-year from March through May, as the US-Iran conflict disrupts shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, Nikkei reported on Friday.Global Middle Eastern crude exports fell 48% during the period, while Japan experienced the steepest decline among the world's top ten oil importers, dropping from seventh place in 2025 to an even sharper contraction this year, said the news agency.To compensate, Tokyo has pivoted to US crude, which surged from 2% of Japan's petroleum imports in February to over 20% by May, while the share from Saudi Arabia and the UAE fell from 90% to 60%, the publication said.The crisis underscores Japan's vulnerability to Middle Eastern supply disruptions, though the government began releasing strategic reserves in late March and retains enough stockpiled oil to cover more than 200 days of domestic consumption, the report said.(Market Chatter news is derived from conversations with market professionals globally. This information is believed to be from reliable sources but may include rumor and speculation. Accuracy is not guaranteed.)
South Korea's industrial production grew 1.5% year over year in April, easing from a 3.9% increase in the previous month as output across most sectors moderated, according to data released by Statistics Korea on Friday.While activity in the construction sector remained in negative territory, albeit at a slower pace, yearly output growth in manufacturing and services slowed to 1.6% and 3.5% from 4.2% and 5.4%, respectively, while public administration growth accelerated to 2.9% from 2.4%, the data showed.On a seasonally adjusted basis, industrial production declined 0.7% in April, reversing the 0.6% monthly growth in March, Statistics Korea said.
Consumer confidence in New Zealand rose 6 points in May to 86.5, tracking a small uplift, although the index remained 21 points lower than its January peak with Wellington remaining the most downcast region, ANZ Research said Friday.According to the ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index, inflation expectations fell to 5.3% this month, compared with 6.6% in April, while house price expectations declined 0.7 percentage points to 2.6%.The firm's best retail indicator, which is the net proportion of households thinking it's a good time to buy a major household item, jumped 5 points to negative 20.It said the bounce in consumer confidence is possibly linked to the modest drop in petroleum prices in May, but confidence remains broadly in line with levels seen before the Middle East conflict, as higher petrol prices continue to weigh weekly budgets with ongoing concerns about the broader economic outlook."The outlook for global oil prices remains very clouded, leading to uncertainty around inflation, interest rates and the labor market," analysts at ANZ commented.The firm expects the central bank to return the Official Cash Rate to neutral at around 3% in July.