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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Japan economy shrinks at fastest pace in 35 years |
| 2009-02-16 |
| TOKYO (AP) - Japan's economy contracted in the fourth quarter at the fastest pace in 35 years as a collapse in global demand continues to drain the life from the world's second-largest economy. Japan's gross domestic product, or the total value of the nation's goods and services, dropped at an annual pace of 12.7 percent in the October-December period, the government said Monday. That's the steepest drop for Japan since the oil shock of 1974. It far outpaces declines of 3.8 percent in the U.S. and 1.2 percent in the euro zone. Japan had its third straight quarter of decline. The GDP fell 1.8 percent in the July-September period. Fourth-quarter GDP fell 3.3 percent from the previous three-month period, and for 2008, it contracted 0.7 percent - the first decline in nine years, according to the Cabinet Office. The three main pillars underlying Japan's emergence from the so-called "lost decade" of the 1990s have crumbled, said Martin Schulz, an economist at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo. Between 2003 and 2007, Japan's GDP grew an average of 2.1 percent every year. But the expansion relied heavily on favorable exchange rates, overseas investment and demand, and old industry - steel, cars and chemicals. Japan's real exports plummeted a record 13.9 percent in the fourth quarter, the government said, as the deepening global slowdown choked off demand for the country's cars and gadgets. Even demand from emerging markets, which earlier had partly offset declines in North America and Europe, began falling sharply in the fourth quarter. An appreciating yen also hurt the country's exporters, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp. |
| Posted by:Steve White |