(Bloomberg) Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed Thursday to make a surge of wage rises sustainable, in an unusual appearance at the convention of Japan’s confederation of labor unions. Most Read from BloombergAlmost Anyone Can Become the House Speaker, Except Donald TrumpKey Taiwan Tech Firms Helping Huawei With China Chip PlantsOzempic Is Making People Buy Less Food, Walmart SaysUS Stocks Buoyed by Big Tech Gains as Yields Slide: Markets WrapApple Considered, Rejected Switch to DuckD
BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand will set a new daily minimum wage by the year's end, its labour minister said on Friday, but it would not be 400 baht ($11.19) as previously stated. The raising of the daily minimum wage, a key plank of the ruling Pheu Thai party's election platform, has rattled businesses over concerns it would push up operating costs and make Thailand less competitive for investors at a time when the economy remains sluggish. Labour Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn told reporters the size of the hike would still be higher than inflation.
Four thousand years ago, Babylon’s ruler, Hammurabi, introduced wage and price controls. We can still read them on clay tablets and columns. This week Sushil Wadhwani, put forward a similar policy, calling it a “tax on inflation” perhaps to disguise its reality.
Japan may be at an inflection point in its 25-year battle with deflation as price and wage rises show signs of broadening, the government said on Tuesday, signalling its conviction the economy was nearing an end to prolonged stagnation. The optimistic view echoes that of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), which has said corporate price- and wage-setting behaviour was changing, and could pave the way for phasing out the country's massive fiscal and monetary support.
The Reserve Banks of Australia's talk about the need to “increase productivity” means less regulation and more “flexibility” for the bosses. Mary Merkenich and Pip Hinman report.