Japan’s exports sank 11.7 percent last month, as the COVID-19 pandemic slammed auto shipments to the US and China, generally its two biggest markets.
The Japanese Ministry of Finance yesterday said that exports to the US fell 16.5 percent in March from a year earlier, while those to China declined 8.7 percent.
Trade has slowed precipitously recently due to travel restrictions and shutdowns aimed at curbing the outbreak of the coronavirus. The outlook is grim, with the IMF forecasting the world economy is heading into its worst slowdown since the 1930’s Great Depression.
Photo: Reuters
Japan’s overall imports last month also suffered, sinking 5 percent, according to the provisional figures that are not seasonally adjusted.
SMBC Nikko Securities Inc chief economist Yoshimasa Maruyama lowered his projections for the Japanese economy, saying he expected it to contract at a 21 percent annual pace in the first quarter.
An earlier forecast called for a 14 percent contraction. A government stay-at-home request issued earlier this month has decimated consumer spending, he said in a report yesterday.
The government has requested a stop to non-essential travel and urged many businesses to close nationwide in an effort to stem the spread of the virus.
Deaths from the coronavirus total about 250 people in Japan, according to Johns Hopkins University, but cases have been surging lately, mostly in Tokyo and other urban areas.
The sickness is critical in a minority of the cases, but people can also be infected for days until symptoms appear, or have no symptoms at all. That has contributed to people unwittingly spreading the virus, for which there is no vaccine or cure.
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