Bloomberg (June 8)
“It’s not like inflation is out of control in Japan. Far from it. Consumer prices rose 2.1% in April from a year earlier, finally reaching the BOJ’s target.” Nevertheless, “after a generation of ultra-low prices, Kuroda may not have appreciated how hard it is for Japanese to embrace something they haven’t had to deal with.” In April, fresh fish and vegetables rose by 12%, “including a nearly 100% increase in the cost of onions. Talk about eye watering.” The BOJ has worked for nearly three decades “to crank up inflation from dangerously low levels. How galling that Japan may not even want it.”
Tags: BOJ, Consumer prices, Dangerously low, Eye watering, Fish, Galling, Inflation, Japan, Kuroda, Onions, Vegetables
The Times of India (March 26)
“On day one of lockdown, supply of fruits and vegetables took a hit, despite the government having marked it out as an ‘essential service.’ Wholesale suppliers…say there are multiple logistics issues.” The largest “is the closure of state entry points and tolls across India. Some 1.2 crore trucks are said to be stranded across India” with some drivers “getting no food or water as dhabas remain closed for miles along highways, even as essentials rot inside the trucks.”
Tags: Closure, Essential service, Food, Fruits, Government, Highways, Lockdown, Logistics, Stranded, Supply, Tolls, Trucks, Vegetables, Water, Wholesale
1843 (August Issue)
“Doctors and parents both tell young people to eat healthily and drink in moderation, and the young finally seem to be listening. Recent shifts in spending” in both the U.S. and the UK “indicate that they are spending more on healthy food and less on boozing.” For example, in the U.S. “households headed by under-25s have increased their spending on fresh fruit by 77% and on fresh vegetables by 47% (in real terms)” while more than halving annual spending on alcohol “from about $560 in 2000 to roughly $270 in 2015.”
Tags: Alcohol, Doctors, Food, Fresh, Fruit, Health, Moderation, Parents, Spending, U.S., UK, Vegetables
