Growing demand for cheaper products and services and the advent of a new breed of discount stores is threatening to embed deflation more permanently into the Chinese economy

Even the Bank of Japan, which has stuck to its ultra-loose policy despite price pressures this year, is now expected to abandon negative interest rates

Latest figures suggest domestic demand is still frail in China and more stimulus may be needed to boost a patchy post-Covid economic recovery

Food prices are high and low income households can't avoid paying for that, so we're going to see higher poverty rates as well, Moody Analytics senior economist Katrina Ell said

The vegetable is being likened by some to gold, as Covid’s impact on small and medium businesses and a bout of natural disasters have turned staples into luxuries

IMF Asia-Pacific director Krishna Srinivasan said inflationary pressures are rising due to a global surge in food and fuel costs caused by the war in Ukraine

The downbeat report comes a day before recently appointed Treasurer Jim Chalmers updates the previous government's budget forecasts

China continues to buck global trends, with inflation slowing as reopening increases production and eases supply chain bottlenecks.

Inflation at the retail level has remained above the central bank's tolerance band of 2-6% for five months in a row, even though it eased marginally in May

While conceding his words may have been inappropriate, Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the remark was intended to help explain the need for more wage growth

Inflation is "scary" and hurting Americans financially but is a complicated issue with many causes, Katherine Tai said in remarks to the Washington International Trade Association

Unlike its US and European counterparts, the BoJ does not face a trade-off between the need to tame inflation and support the economy, Kuroda says