Japan’s economy shrank at a 3 percent annual rate in the July to September quarter, as private consumption and auto production took a hit from efforts to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. GDP declined 0.8 percent from the previous quarter, the Cabinet Office said yesterday.
The world’s third-largest economy grew 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter in April to June and shrank 1.1 percent in January to March.
Japan never implemented a COVID-19 lockdown, but it periodically asked businesses to close or limit hours under “states of emergency.” It has also encouraged social distancing.
Photo: Bloomberg
That crimped consumption and private investment. Private consumption sank 1.1 percent in July to September from the previous quarter, according to yesterday’s data.
A shortage of computer chips and other parts necessary for vehicle production has been a serious problem for months because of lockdowns in chip-producing nations in Asia.
Japanese automakers’ production and sales have suffered, but once restrictions in Southeast Asian countries ease, production is expected to rebound in the months ahead. Toyota Motor Corp, Japan’s largest automaker, said that production is likely to return to normal next month.
The preliminary and seasonally adjusted real GDP data also showed that exports sank 2.1 percent in the July to September period from the previous quarter.
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management Co senior economist Naoya Oshikubo said that economic recovery would come once COVID-19 is brought under control.
“The stars are now aligned for a rapid recovery. The state of emergency was lifted at the end of September, so a sharp rebound in consumer spending, with more people eating out and going to cinemas, clubs, theater and other forms of public entertainment, is underway,” Oshikubo said in a report.
Hopes are also high that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government can pass a supplementary budget within the year to prop up the economy, he said.
Some analysts forecast Japan’s GDP growing in the October to December quarter.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
RSS