Westpac note that "Asian PMIs have begun the...>

ASIA: Westpac note that "Asian PMIs have begun the second half of 2018 on a soft

note. The slowdown through the first half of the year continued into July with

most economies recording softer momentum in manufacturing. South Korea's PMI is

back to the moderate levels seen prior to the start of the 2017 uplift, and

Japan is trending towards that point as well. Taiwan is also well off its peak,

with concerns around trade policy clearly weighing on sentiment. Emerging Asia

also saw declines in July, with activity in India and Indonesia easing as their

central banks raised interest rates to mitigate global pressures on price

(India) and exchange rate (Indonesia) stability. Given the recent BOJ

announcement, this Asia PMI update will focus on Japan. The softer PMI read

further backs the BOJ's guidance that policy will need to remain accomodative

for some time. However, a period of sustained extremely easy policy can have

unintended consequences. The BOJ are aware of this and their recent policy

adjustments are an attempt to address potential side effects."