Xinhua, Tokyo :
Japan’s economy essentially stalled in the April-June quarter, missing market forecasts and rekindling worries about the government’s faltering bid to stoke a recovery, government data showed Monday.
According to the Cabinet Office, the second quarter growth of the world’s third-largest economy came in less than market expectations for between a 0.4- percent and a 0.7-percent expansion in the recording period, logging an annualized 0.2-percent in real terms.
The minimal growth comes on the heels of a revised 2-percent growth logged in the January-March quarter and highlights the issues the government is having in actualizing economic policies to reverse two decades of deflation and reinvigorate corporate and private spending, against a backdrop of a persistently strong yen, which continues to hamper the nation’s key export sector, as prior and recent stimulus efforts seem to be ineffectual.
The government on Monday pointed to a slowdown in overseas economies, the strength of the yen and slumping private consumption as all contributing to the stagnation.
But sluggish exports have been significantly weighing on the economy, the latest economic data showed, with the Cabinet Office saying exports had retreated 1.5 percent in the reporting quarter, following a 0.1- percent growth in the first three months of the year, underscoring withdrawing overseas demand and the negative impact of the yen’s protracted appreciation.
With consumer spending, a hefty economic component accounting for 60 percent of total gross domestic product, also weighing on the economy, with an uptick of just 0.2 percent in the quarter, the failure of “Abenomics” is very much in the spotlight, with the weaker-than-expected growth data causing economists to
question his policies’ effects on deflation, market perception and participation and consumer spending.
Japan’s economy essentially stalled in the April-June quarter, missing market forecasts and rekindling worries about the government’s faltering bid to stoke a recovery, government data showed Monday.
According to the Cabinet Office, the second quarter growth of the world’s third-largest economy came in less than market expectations for between a 0.4- percent and a 0.7-percent expansion in the recording period, logging an annualized 0.2-percent in real terms.
The minimal growth comes on the heels of a revised 2-percent growth logged in the January-March quarter and highlights the issues the government is having in actualizing economic policies to reverse two decades of deflation and reinvigorate corporate and private spending, against a backdrop of a persistently strong yen, which continues to hamper the nation’s key export sector, as prior and recent stimulus efforts seem to be ineffectual.
The government on Monday pointed to a slowdown in overseas economies, the strength of the yen and slumping private consumption as all contributing to the stagnation.
But sluggish exports have been significantly weighing on the economy, the latest economic data showed, with the Cabinet Office saying exports had retreated 1.5 percent in the reporting quarter, following a 0.1- percent growth in the first three months of the year, underscoring withdrawing overseas demand and the negative impact of the yen’s protracted appreciation.
With consumer spending, a hefty economic component accounting for 60 percent of total gross domestic product, also weighing on the economy, with an uptick of just 0.2 percent in the quarter, the failure of “Abenomics” is very much in the spotlight, with the weaker-than-expected growth data causing economists to
question his policies’ effects on deflation, market perception and participation and consumer spending.
