Japan's headline inflation rate was unchanged from the previous month at 2.8%. But so-called “core-core” inflation, which excludes fresh food and energy prices tracked by the Bank of Japan, fell to 1.9% in July from 2.2%. This was the lowest level of “core-core” inflation since September 2022.
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Friday as investors waited for remarks from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at a meeting of global central bank governors in Jackson Hole.
Chairman Powell has previously outlined broad policy ideas at Jackson Hole, offering hints about the direction of U.S. policy.
In Asia, Japanese data showed headline inflation was unchanged at 2.8% in July from the previous month.
Core inflation, excluding fresh food prices, was 2.7 percent, in line with forecasts by economists surveyed by Reuters and up from 2.6 percent in June.
But the so-called “core-core” inflation rate tracked by the Bank of Japan, which excludes fresh food and energy prices, fell to 1.9% in July from 2.2% in June.
This is the lowest reading for “core core” inflation since September 2022.
Japan's Nikkei stock average reversed gains and fell 0.11%, while the Topix edged up slightly.
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda told parliament on Friday that the central bank would “continue to closely monitor” market developments, adding that markets remained volatile, according to Reuters.
South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.51%, while the small-cap KOSDAQ lost 0.58%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.43%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.73%, while mainland China's CSI 300 edged lower, marking its fourth straight day of declines.
Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group said in a statement early on Friday that it would convert its secondary listing in Hong Kong into a primary listing and will have a dual listing in both Hong Kong and New York.
“The company's voluntary conversion to a dual primary listing does not involve any new share issuance or capital raising,” it added.
Overnight in the US, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was the biggest drop of the three major indexes, falling 1.67%, as tech stocks bore the brunt of Thursday's selloff.
The S&P 500 lost 0.89%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.43%.
—CNBC's Alex Harring and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
