AFP, Tokyo :
Japanese industrial production dived in May for the first time in three months, official data showed Thursday, in a worrying sign for the already fragile economy.
Factory output dropped 2.3 percent in May from a month earlier, much worse than the average 0.2 percent drop expected by economists, according to Bloomberg News.
The weak figures come after Japan logged a trade deficit in May, its first since January, while retail sales come in flat.
The yen’s surge in response to Britain’s vote last week to quit the European Union is also threatening Japanese firms’ profits, after the world’s number three economy dodged falling into recession in the first quarter.
“The sharp fall in industrial production in May suggests that the economy slowed in the second quarter following a solid rise in GDP in Q1,” Marcel Thieliant from research house Capital Economics said in a commentary.
Japanese industrial production dived in May for the first time in three months, official data showed Thursday, in a worrying sign for the already fragile economy.
Factory output dropped 2.3 percent in May from a month earlier, much worse than the average 0.2 percent drop expected by economists, according to Bloomberg News.
The weak figures come after Japan logged a trade deficit in May, its first since January, while retail sales come in flat.
The yen’s surge in response to Britain’s vote last week to quit the European Union is also threatening Japanese firms’ profits, after the world’s number three economy dodged falling into recession in the first quarter.
“The sharp fall in industrial production in May suggests that the economy slowed in the second quarter following a solid rise in GDP in Q1,” Marcel Thieliant from research house Capital Economics said in a commentary.
