Japan Announced Its Largest GDP Drop

Japan just announced its worst drop in GDP on record as the ongoing Covid-19 epidemic nick expenditure.

The world’s third-biggest economy decreased by 7.8% in the second quarter compared with the previous quarter, the country’s Cabinet Office reported on Monday. That adapted to an annual rate of decline of 27.8%, the lowest since modern documents started in 1980 and the ensuing third quarter of decrease.

But Japan performed better than other large economies in the April-June period when the United States and Germany documented 10% falls over the last quarter, and British output fell by 20.4%.

Among the rest G7 economies, Canada’s statistics agency expects second-quarter GDP to contract 12% from the previous quarter.

However, China returned to growth in the second quarter, meaning the world’s second-largest economy escaped a recession following its lowest beginning to the year in decades.

Concerns about the Japan’s economy recovery pace

Like the majority of other economies, Japan’s GDP contraction was mainly due to shrinking consumer spending because of the restrictions imposed to contain Covid-19 and crashing exports.

Consumption, which applies to more than half of Japan’s economy, dropped by 8.2% for the quarter as businesses across the country fell during six-week national distress in April and May.

External demand cut three percentage points off GDP in the quarter as the global trade slump hampered exports.

While not as large as the fall seen in other major economies, the Q2 loss in growth nonetheless marks the third ensuing quarter growth has shrunk, undermining Japan’s susceptibility to further drawback shocks. Oxford Economics wrote in a note.

There’s also concern about the recovery pace, even though an overcome in activity in June and July.

The majority of economists warn that a large number of relief measures embraced in two economic stimulus packages prior this year will end in September, setting a risk to the small- and medium-sized businesses that comprise the bulk of Japan’s economy.

“The lack of coherent policy response is frightening. We need a thoughtful, wary, and immense response to this horrible situation. It is exactly what [Prime Minister] Abe and company require when it comes to how they are dealing with things,” said Noriko Hama, a professor at Doshisha Business School, part of Doshisha University.

The Japanese government went ahead with a finance plan to boost domestic travel mid-July, just as new virus cases started to surge.

Japan has logged more than 19,000 new virus cases in August alone, which is about a third of the number of infections the country has recorded during the entire pandemic.

Japan has reported 55,426 confirmed COVID- cases and 1,101 coronavirus-connected deaths, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare reported on Monday.