Charts of the Week: Foreign workers in Japan, equities’ waning appeal and disinflation
This week’s charts cover the following data:
Japan is employing ever more immigrant workers
With an aging population causing a labour shortage in some industries, historically immigration-averse Japan has been welcoming more and more foreign workers. As the?Wall Street Journal recently wrote, it’s also loosening regulations, potentially letting them stay in the country for good.
As our charts show, the numbers have quadrupled in just 15 years – and the foreign-born now account for 2 percent of the total labour force. The effects in the services, retail and hospitality sectors are easily seen in this visualisation.
The number of foreign-born construction workers is small, but also notable, taking an upturn in the run-up to the 2020 Olympics.
More nations join the US-led disinflation
This visualisation tracks inflation in developed markets before, during and after the pandemic.
Red squares indicate months where inflation was speeding up; blue squares represent decelerating inflation; and the white line measures the percentage of countries where price increases were accelerating year on year.
The peak global inflation in the winter of 2021-22 is clearly visible – as is the inflation slowdown that broadened in 2022-23. The US and Canada were first to experience sustained disinflation, with Europe following.
Two decades of central bank decisions: DMs vs EMs
Aiming to visualise a truly global perspective on how monetary policy has evolved, this chart aggregates inputs from central banks around the world – split into a selection of developed and emerging markets. It shows whether a central bank’s most recent move was a hike or a cut.
The Covid-driven emergency stimulus of early 2020 was unprecedented in its breadth: nearly 100 percent of the world’s central banks were cutting rates. By contrast, during the global financial crisis of 2008-09, a few EMs were still hiking as developed markets slashed rates.
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The current cycle is also showing a divergence between the two groups. A few emerging markets have started cutting rates this year, but no developed markets have. (Strictly speaking, Japan’s last move was a cut, but that was in 2016, when it moved to negative interest rates.)
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