Japan Raises Regional Economic View for First Time Since 2004
Japan’s Finance Ministry raised its assessment of the regional economy for the first time in five years amid a recovery in exports and industrial production.
“Some areas of the economy are showing movements of picking up or leveling out,” the ministry’s local-office chiefs said in a quarterly report in Tokyo today, the first upgrade since April 2004. The economy is in a “severe” state, it said.
A recovery in global demand and Prime Minister Taro Aso’s 25 trillion yen ($264 billion) in stimulus measures are increasing confidence that the worst of the nation’s deepest postwar recession is over. Japan’s exports fell at the slowest pace this year in June and a report due tomorrow is expected to show factory output rose for a fourth month.
The ministry upgraded its assessment in 10 of the nation’s 11 regions, today’s report said payday loan no fax no credit check. It left unchanged its evaluation of Okinawa, southern Japan, saying conditions “remain severe.”
The Bank of Japan said this month it became more optimistic about regional economies for the first time since January 2006.
Japan’s economy probably grew at an annualized 2.4 percent in the three months ended June 30, the first expansion in more than a year, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists.
Despite signs that the economy is recovering, all regions said that employment conditions remain severe or are worsening. Japan’s unemployment rate rose to a five-year high of 5.2 percent in May.
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