Japan’s GDP declines after 12 years
The economic indicator of the Asian country presented an annual contraction of 4.8 % something that had not happened since 2009
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Japan, the world’s third largest economy, registered an annual contraction of 4.8 % in 2020, the first since the 2009 financial crisis, despite the 3 % expansion observed in the last three months of the year, after the 5.3 % rebound registered in the third quarter, according to the first estimate of the data published by the Japanese Government.
In this way, the contraction in activity in the Japanese economy due to the Covid-19 crisis was less intense than that registered in 2009 due to the financial crisis that led to the Great Recession and caused a fall in GDP of 5 , 7 %.
In 2020, private consumption experienced an annual fall of 5.9 %, compared to the 0.3 % decrease in 2019, including a 6.3 % decrease in household consumption, while government consumption increased 2.7 %, compared to 1.9 % the previous year. For its part, gross fixed capital formation by companies fell 4.1 % in the year, after increasing 0.9 % in 2019.
Likewise, the Japanese trade balance registered a negative contribution of two tenths in 2020, with a decline of 1.4 % in exports and 0.4 % for imports.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, Japan’s GDP grew by 3% year-on-year, after the 5.3 % expansion observed in the third quarter, following falls of 8.3 % between April and June, as well as 0, 6 % between January and March 2020.
Private consumption in the fourth quarter grew by 2.2 %, compared to the rise of 5.1 % in the third quarter, while government spending increased by 2 %, eight tenths below the increase observed between July and September. For its part, gross fixed capital formation increased 3.2 % in the last quarter, after falling 2.2 % in the third period.
K. Tovar
Source: Nikkei Asia
