By Satoshi Sugiyama and Kantaro Komiya
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s nominal base wages in May at fastest pace in years The rate of increase, government data released on Friday, intensified the debate about when the central bank will ease the ultra-loose monetary stimulus.
As BoJ Governor, global financial markets have been closely watching wage data from Japan Kazuo Ueda sees wage growth as a key indicator to consider when deliberating policy shifts.
Routine wages rose 1.8% in May from a year earlier, the biggest increase since February, data from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare showed 1993. Strong base wage gains pushed workers’ total cash earnings, or nominal wages, up 2.5% in May after a revised 0.8% in April.
Rengo, Japan’s largest labor group, said on Wednesday that mainly based on the results of its final survey, companies agreed to an average wage increase of 3.1993% this year, which is the highest since the highest level since 3.9%.
The results of the spring labor negotiations, known as the “Spring Capital”, will increasingly appear in government wage statistics in the coming months, a labor ministry official said.
Despite this, real wages contracted by 1.2% in May, the month in a row of year-on-year declines, due to continued consumption Oral inflation outpaced nominal wage growth and squeezed households’ purchasing power.
Separate data on Friday showed that household spending in Japan fell 4.0% year-on-year in May %, falling for the third straight month and beating the median forecast for a 2.4% decline.
Declined 1.1% MoM on a seasonally adjusted basis, against expectations for a 0.5% increase, the fourth straight monthly decline.
1993 1993
