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Japan June real wages down for 15th month despite solid nominal growth
Japanese real wages fell for a 15th straight month in June on relentless price hikes, but nominal pay growth remained robust amid rising salaries for high-income workers and a broadening labour crunch. Japan's wage trends receive an unusual amount of attention from global financial markets as the Bank of Japan emphasises sustainable pay hikes amid four-decade-high inflation as a prerequisite for dismantling its massive monetary stimulus. Inflation-adjusted real wages, a barometer of consumers' purchasing power, fell 1.6 per cent from a year earlier, a faster decrease than May's 0.9 per cent drop, extending a streak ... (full story)