Friday, February 15, 2013

WSJ: Japan's GDP Shrinks for Third Straight Quarter




by M. Obe (14 February 2013) The Wall Street Journal, p. A14

[paraphrasing] Japan's GDP shrank at the rate of 0.4% for the third consecutive quarter, steeper than analysts expected.
Japan's exports are 3.7% down.

Corporate capital outlays are also down. [end]


Majia here: I think Japan's woes stem more from the general global depression than specifically from Fukushima, although contaminated Japanese exports (including cars) have been sent back by some nations and one can imagine dampened consumer demand for Japanese food products, in particular.

Majia here: In early Jan, Abe's LDP approved a big stimulus package for the lagging economy
Japan Approves $117 Billion Stimulus as PM Abe Aims to Boost Economy http://www.cnbc.com/id/100371478/Japan_Approves_117_Billion_Stimulus_as_PM_Abe_Aims_to_Boost_Economy


Majia here: What CNBC doesn't tell you is that the stimulus has a big defense allocation:

Japanese government unveils £138bn stimulus package 

[Excerpted] It also includes a request to raise military spending by 100bn yen from the 4.6tn yen budget last year, the first such increase in a decade.
The increase is partly aimed at beefing up monitoring and defences around islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China. A territorial dispute over the uninhabited islands flared into anti-Japanese riots across China last autumn after.....

Majia here: But the Wall Street Journal reassures those who are concerned about escalation of tensions between China and Japan:

"Tokyo Seeks Military Hot Line to Beijing" to prevent all out nuclear war (in the Wall Street Journal 2/14/2013 by A. Martin p. A14)

 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.