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Japan Service Demand Hits 6-Month Low
Friday, 17 October 2008 00:02:24 GMT  |  Ilya Spivak, Currency Analyst
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Japanese demand shrank in August as the Tertiary Index fell -1.4%, the worst reading in 6 months. The world's second-largest economy is now formally in recession having seen overall economic growth print negative in the first and second quarters of this year. Consumers are acting accordingly, trimming back spending in preparation for the leaner period ahead. Wage growth has been on a steep downtrend since the beginning of the year, easily outpacing any savings that consumers are seeing from sliding crude oil prices from mid-July. On balance, the Yen exchange rate has largely decoupled from shaky Japanese fundamentals to fall in with trends in risk sentiment. Indeed, the VIX Index measure of volatility is currently 83% inversely correlated with EURJPY.

EURJPY Spot vs. VIX Index:

10-16-08 vix
Source: Bloomberg

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