Japan

Thanks to lower oil prices that drove surplus to 433 billion yen.

This after June industrial production fell far lower than the consensus forecast of 1.5%.

This fall is following the 3.4% drop in May resulting to three straight month of losses.

This is what the Japanese government stated in its annual report.

Exports to Europe and China fell sharply causing Japan's first decline in four months.

The external uncertainties and yen’s strength will likely prompt the BOJ to ease again in the next three months, says DBS.

The fine tuning of monetary policy should have little impact on the financial markets and the real economy, says DBS.

From 40.7 in May, Japan’s consumer confidence index dropped to 40.4 in June.

The current account registered a surplus of JPY 282bn in May, marking the lowest over the past four months.

No policy change is expected, says DBS, with BOJ raising its economic view on all regions of the country during the regional economic report for 2Q.

Growth paused in the second quarter, but DBS says leading indicators point to an improvement in the next three months.

The tax hike will further dent Japanese consumers' pockets when it takes effect in 2014.

Consumption tax will be raised in staggered stages of 8% in April 2014 and another 10% in October 2015.

There was weakening of business sentiment as indicated by the sharp decline in manufacturers’ production forecast for the survey month of May, says DBS.

Fitch Ratings says insurers in Japan will continue to reduce risks in investments and benefit from improving underwriting fundamentals.

It has reached 225% of GDP as of end-2011 and slow fiscal consolidation has forced Fitch to issue credit downgrades.