+98 now
On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 8:57 AM, Desmond Wira <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Pagi nikkei udah -209 > > Japan's economy shrinks in 3Q; enters recession > Sunday November 16, 8:35 pm ET > By Tomoko A. Hosaka, Associated Press Writer > Dragged by global slowdown, Japanese economy shrinks in third quarter, > enters recession TOKYO (AP) -- Japan fell into a recession in the third > quarter for the first time since 2001, as the impact of the global slowdown > took its toll on the world's No. 2 economy. > > Japan's gross domestic product, or the total value of the nation's goods and > services, dropped at an annual pace of 0.4 percent in the July-Septebmer > period as companies sharply curtailed spending, the government said Monday. > > The weaker-than-expected result indicates that Japan, along with the > euro-zone, is now technically in a recession, defined as two straight > quarters of negative growth. GDP in the April-June period fell a revised 3.7 > percent and rose 4.0 in the first quarter. > > Economists surveyed by Kyodo news agency had predicted an annualized 0.1 > percent rise in the third quarter. > > On a quarterly basis, GDP contracted 0.1 percent, the government said. > Business investment -- a main driver of Japan's six-year economic recovery > since 2002 -- slid 1.7 percent from the previous quarter. > > But the worst may be yet to come, economists say, especially with dramatic > falls in demand overseas for trademark Japanese products like cars and > gadgets. As a result, major exporters including Toyota Motor Corp. and > Nissan Motor Co. have slashed their profit forecasts and sales projections > for the full year. > > Since taking office in late September, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has > so far unveiled two economic stimulus packages in an effort to cushion the > blow. > > The deteriorating conditions led Masamichi Adachi, senior economist at > JPMorgan Securities in Tokyo, to recently downgrade his outlook on the > Japanese economy. > > "We are now looking for a severe recession, similar to that during Japan's > own financial market crisis in 1997 to 1998, and to the current U.S. > recession, in terms of depth of real GDP contraction," he said in a report. > > In trading Monday, the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index was down 2.7 > percent. > >
