|
warrior bodhisattva
Super Moderator
Location: East-central Canada
|
Japan’s 4th-Quarter G.D.P. Falls 3.3%
Quote:
New York Times
February 15, 2009
Japan’s 4th-Quarter G.D.P. Falls 3.3%
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:57 p.m. ET
TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's economy contracted in the fourth quarter at the fastest pace in 35 years as a collapse in global demand battered the world's second-largest economy.
Japan's gross domestic product, or the total value of the nation's goods and services, dropped at an annual pace of 12.7 percent in the October-December period, the government said Monday.
That's the steepest drop for Japan since the oil shock of 1974. It far outpaces declines of 3.8 percent in the U.S. and 1.2 percent in the euro zone.
The contraction underscores the vulnerability of Asia's export-driven economies during global downturns and point toward more cuts in jobs, production and profits in the coming months.
A survey of economists by the Kyodo news agency had projected an 11.6 percent fourth-quarter contraction.
Japan had its third straight quarter of decline. The GDP fell 1.8 percent in the July-September period.
Fourth-quarter GDP fell 3.3 percent from the previous three-month period, and for 2008, it contracted 0.7 percent -- the first decline in nine years, according to the Cabinet Office.
With recovery nowhere in sight, Japan is now in the midst of its worst downturn since World War II, analysts say.
''Since October, economic indicators have deteriorated at a pace that defies any rule of thumb,'' Tetsufumi Yamakawa, chief Japan economist at Goldman Sachs, said in a recent report. ''There has been an unprecedented large decline in exports and production-related indicators in particular, not only in Japan but throughout Asia.''
Japan's real exports plummeted a record 13.9 percent in the fourth quarter, the government said, as the deepening global slowdown choked off demand for the country's cars and gadgets. An appreciating yen also hurt the country's exporters, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp.
Japanese electronics company Pioneer Corp. said last week it will cut 10,000 jobs globally, joining a growing list of the country's corporate giants scrambling to slash their payrolls. Sony Corp. is shedding 8,000 workers, while Nissan Motor Co. and NEC Corp. are each cutting 20,000.
Japan slipped into recession in the third quarter after its GDP contracted an annualized 3.7 percent in the April-June period.
A recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth, though many economists using other parameters say the current downturn actually began in late 2007.
Media reports over the weekend said Japan may be considering additional measures to shore up its economy with fresh spending likely to top 10 trillion yen ($109 billion).
Lawmakers are debating a record 88.5 trillion yen ($963 billion) budget for the fiscal year starting in April. The Yomiuri Shimbun said once parliament passes the budget, Prime Minister Taro Aso -- who faces dismal approval ratings -- will announce the extra economic measures.
Japan's central bank, which lowered its key interest rate to 0.1 percent in December, has introduced various steps to try to thaw a corporate credit crunch. But there is little it can do to address the unprecedented decline in external demand.
The Bank of Japan policy board is scheduled to start a two-day meeting Wednesday.
In stock markets, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.99 percent at 7,702.24.
|
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009...l?ref=business
This is a major indicator suggesting that global trade is in dire straits. Japan--the world's second largest economy--has taken its single biggest hit in 35 years. To note about the Asian economy in general is its export reliance. It's easy focus on the U.S. economy considering its prominence and sensationalism, but we should also be looking elsewhere. Thanks in part to globalization, and also in part to an awkward synchronization, this crisis is very much global.
We shouldn't be expecting too much of the Obama administration's stimulus package. One nation can only do so much with conditions like these. The economic solution will be an international one.
__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
|