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Economic darkness in the land of the rising sun
18th February 2009
The scales of the fall in Japanese GDP in the 4th quarter of 2008 - a staggering 3.3% in just three months - suggests that Japan is on the verge of an extremely damaging collapse in output and jobs. Shoichi Nakagawa might have been driven to drink by the release of the figures (bizarrely timed for early on a Sunday morning) and his unsteady performance has cost him his job! Jon blogged about the Japanese recession a few days ago and to support that blog I have put together a chartroom presentation on Japan to give a flavour of the problems facing the economy.
The presentation includes links to a couple of good BBC video clips.
A slump in national output to rival the “lost decade” of the 1990s
Will price deflation return?
Land prices continue to fall
The collapse in trade
Chinese slowdown is hitting Japan
The rising yen hits exports
A descent into deficit
Manufacturing output is collapsing
Unemployment rises again
No room to cut interest rates
Stock prices flounder
Recession cuts capacity use
Consumer confidence collapses
Presentation is here:
Japan_in_Recession.ppt
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.