• Coronavirus, China reactivates 40 percent of flights. In Japan, infections are increasing
  • Salt manufacture in China, industrial production well in Japan

Share

May 18, 2020 The Japanese economy slipped into recession for the first time since 2015. Japanese GDP contracted 3.4% in the first quarter, after -7.3% in the fourth quarter. Analysts had expected a 4.6% drop in the first three months of the year.
Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said he expected further contraction in growth in the next quarter. According to the Nikkei newspaper, the Japanese economy could contract by 21.7% in the second quarter, marking the worst result since the end of the Second World War. It would be the third consecutive quarterly decline for nearly 10 years, namely the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. In the first quarter, global lockdowns and the stalemate in manufacturing activities impacted Japanese exports, which recorded a 6% drop, the strongest drop in almost four years.

The Japanese economy began to contract before the beginning of the declaration of emergency in early April, due to the slowdown in exports, linked to the closures in the rest of the world. In Japan, coronavirus has impacted less severely than in other countries. There are 16,000 cases and only 750 deaths. Last week Prime Minister Shinzo Abe eased the state of emergency, but kept the lockdowns in the Tokyo and Osaka regions. To counter the economic impact of the coronavirus, the government has launched a trillion dollars of stimuli, equal to 21% of GDP.