Japan’s economy showed fresh signs of recovery as factory output picked up and unemployment fell slightly, but a drop in consumer prices highlighted that deflation remains a key threat.
Asia’s biggest economy last year emerged from its worst post-war recession, growing in the second and third quarters because of rebounding exports, much of it to booming China, and government pump-priming measures.
As overseas demand has picked up, Japan’s industrial output rose 2.2 percent month-on-month last month, the 10th straight monthly rise, data released yesterday showed.
Last month also saw the first year-on-year rise in exports for Japan in 15 months, figures released on Wednesday showed.
“The fresh data show that Japan is on a steady path to recovery,” said Taro Saito, senior economist at NLI Research Institute. “Concerns that Japan’s economy will get mired in a double-dip recession have eased.
“Given that exports are rebounding steadily, Japan’s economic recovery is likely to continue, even if its pace slows slightly,” he said.
The finance ministry said in its October-December quarterly report yesterday that although the world’s No. 2 economy remains “in a severe situation, some areas are showing signs of picking up.”
Japan’s jobless rate fell to 5.1 percent last month, improving 0.1 percentage point from the previous month, against market expectations of a rise to 5.3 percent, government data showed.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said that despite the slight improvement in the unemployment rate, “it is far from giving us cause for optimism” and pledged that future stimulus measures would help create fresh jobs.
In other data, the government said there were 46 job offers for every 100 job seekers last month.
Deflation remained another key threat to the Japanese economy. A fall in general prices cuts into corporate profits, leading firms to slash jobs and put off capital investment that generates growth.
Core consumer prices fell 1.3 percent last month from a year earlier, the 10th straight monthly drop, government data showed.
Prices in Tokyo fell 2 percent year-on-year this month. The index is seen as a bellwether because it comes a month before national figures.
“Declines in prices of services are notable, and this kind of price drop can easily translate to weaker wages for workers in the industries,” Barclays Capital chief Japan economist Kyohei Morita said.
“Although the risk is not big yet, we should be careful to monitor Tokyo’s wages and price trends,” he said. “The Tokyo metropolitan area may fall into a deflationary spiral down the road.”
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
RSS