Data released by Japan show that Japan’s inflation-adjusted real wages fell by 2.5% annually in March, falling for two consecutive years. The data showed the pace of decline accelerated from 1.8% last month as rising costs of living outpaced nominal wages. Japan is seeing early signs of a virtuous cycle of rising wages and inflation. However, workers’ incomes still lag behind rising costs, underscoring the challenges policymakers face in getting companies to raise wages.Some economists say they expect real wages to turn positive sometime in the 2024/25 financial year. Nominal wages, the average total cash earnings per worker, rose 0.6% to 301,193 yen ($1,940.30), a slowdown from 1.4% in February. On the other hand, consumer prices increased by 3.1% year-on-year in March, slightly slower than the 3.3% increase in February, hovering above the Bank of Japan’s 2% inflation target and price growth. Of total cash receipts, regular wages, which determine basic wages, increased by 1.7%, while overtime wages fell by 1.5%, falling for the fourth consecutive month. Special payments such as bonuses and other benefits in March are reduced by 9.4% annually.At annual labor talks this year, Japan’s major companies offered to raise workers’ monthly wages by more than 5 percent, a level not seen in about three decades. But small businesses, which employ seven in 10 workers, are lagging behind, holding back wage gains. Low-wage informal workers also make up about 40% of the workforce. The specter of sluggish wage growth is dashing policymakers’ hopes of achieving healthy economic growth led by durable inflation and stable wages, which are considered a prerequisite for normalizing monetary policy.

 The government said on Sunday that a weakening global economy and a slowdown at home were among the reasons Australia reported a smaller increase in federal budget revenue for the year to June 30 than in recent years. The Labor government is expected to report a budget surplus on May 14, although it said in March that revenue growth would be smaller than a year earlier due to lower commodity prices and a weaker labor market. On Sunday, it said the tax revenue hikes in the budget, which excludes levies from the goods and services tax, are expected to be more than A$100 billion ($66.08 billion) higher than the average hike of A$129 billion in the past three budgets.The expected results are due to a weakening global economy, a slowdown in the domestic economy, a weak labor market and falling commodity prices, the report said. “We are realistic about the challenges facing the economy and budget, including that the kind of large-scale revenue upgrade we saw in the recent budget update will not continue,” Finance Minister Jim Chalmers said in a statement. Chalmers has previously cited weak commodity prices, particularly for key export iron ore, and rising unemployment as key drivers of the change. Australia’s unemployment rate reached 4.1% in January, a two-year high. In April, he warned that events in the Middle East had heightened concerns about the global economy and would impact the government’s budget in May.

 A former central bank official who was involved in the Tokyo market push a decade ago said Japan may continue to intervene to support the yen until the risk of speculators triggering a sharp yen depreciation is removed. The yen rose sharply on Thursday, a day after traders suspected intervention measures were taken on Monday to stem a sharp decline. Japan’s Finance Ministry declined to confirm whether it had intervened, making markets nervous about the possibility of another round of intervention.At the time of Tokyo’s intervention from 2010 to 2012, Ton Takeuchi, head of the Bank of Japan’s foreign exchange department, said Japan might enter the market on Monday because the yen suffered sudden and huge losses in a short period of time that day. He said if the yen suddenly appreciated 2-3 points in a day without supervision, it could trigger a free fall in the yen, exacerbating concerns about the yen and the broader economy. By intervening when the yen’s decline accelerates in the short term, the authorities can maximize the psychological impact by alerting traders to the possibility of more action.Japan has historically been primarily concerned with preventing a sharp appreciation of the yen that would damage its export-reliant economy. Takeuchi participated in several yen sell-off intervention actions between 2010 and 2012. Under Japanese law, the government has jurisdiction over monetary policy, with the Bank of Japan acting as an agent for the Finance Ministry in deciding when to intervene.