NEWS: Japan officially in a Depression

www.theage.com.au...

Japan plunges into depression * Peter Martin * February 17, 2009 AUSTRALIA'S biggest and most reliable customer, Japan, has plunged into depression, with federal Treasurer Wayne Swan now warning of the worst global downturn "in our lifetimes". - Japan among worst hit - Businesses forecast losses - Australian export fears Japan's economy shrank an annualised 12.7 per cent over the December quarter, its worst result since the 1974 oil shock. Japan is by far Australia's biggest export customer, accounting for one in every five container ships that leave Australia's shores. The new figures put it among the worst-hit casualties of the global crisis. The annualised contraction of 12.7 per cent, or 3.3 per cent in quarterly terms, dwarfs those of the United States and Europe and is much worse than anything that happened to Japan during its so-called "lost decade" of recession in the 1990s. The collapse in growth fits the profile of a depression — a deep recession in which annual GDP falls by 10 per cent or more.///

[edit on 16-2-2009 by compwiz32190]

You need to put some markers around that text, to show its from external sources.
Im sure a MOD will help you out soon.


Thats a scary situation, Japan in Depression.
China cant be to far off then eitehr, a few % left.

Todays markets are reflecting the lunch time statement.


Australia ASX All Ords -62.30 -1.80% 3,399.00 2/17 2:33pm

Japan Nikkei 225 -112.68 -1.45% 7,637.49 2/17 11:00am
both have significant drops at 12'ish.

Hmm, not good!

this is definitely linked to the Us$ gain

This is what happens when a country that doesn't have that much in the way of natural resources is so dependent on exports for their economy.

Luckily Japanese are usually strong savers.

Somehow I have this incredible faith in the ingenuity and intelligence of the Japanese...their saving habits should carry them through this.

This is scary for Australia, Japan is our biggest exporter.
Exporting is all we are good for.

Is there any official announcement from Japan.
That it is in Depression?
The only time Japan is going to be Officially in depression, is when Japan announces it is officially in a depression.
Until then, it is just speculation about economic numbers from reporters and officials in other country's.

[edit on 17-2-2009 by BorgHoffen]

This just goes to show everybody that this is global!

If you havent felt it by now you will feel it sooner or later! We need to get on our leaders rear and start chewing them a new one and stay ontop of them and dont let go we need to be like pitbulls.



[edit on 17-2-2009 by SLAYER69]

Japan headed for longest, deepest post-war recession

JAPAN'S economy, the world's second-largest, shrank at the rate of almost 13 per cent in the final three months of 2008.

Round two: The Japanese economy will soon see a second financial stimulus program, the third since September 2008. Picture: Bloomberg
In real terms, adjusted for deflation, Japan’s gross domestic product fell 3.3 per cent on the previous quarter, or 12.7 per cent annualised.

The contraction is Japan's sharpest in almost 35 years, since the first "oil shock" of 1973/74.

By at least one definition - a deep recession in which annual GDP falls by 10 per cent or more - Japan is headed into a depression.

Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano said today the Government would soon produce another economic stimulus programme, the third since September.

"Doing nothing after we see these miserable economic numbers is tantamount to the negligence of our duty."

Japanese history is the tale of long periods of prosperity and advancement punctuated by incredibly brutal, horrific nightmare ages of famine, repression, and utter destruction. It is a nation that has known the horrors of the Sengoku wars of the late 1500s, when the Samurai armed themselves with copies of early European muskets and slaughtered themselves by the tens of thousands; an increibly savage event that, as a shooting war of mass charges into death, would not be equaled in intensity or scale in the west until World War I. This was followed by a 300 year period of peace in which not a single shot was fired, demonstrating that a long-term ban on advanced weaponry can exist even if the technology is already present.

Later in its history, the country went on a raping and looting spree through the rest of Asia, cutting a bloody swath throughout the mainland and leaving festering mountains of corpses in its wake. This was followed by utter ruin and devastation under General LeMay's merciless bombing campain, which left much of the nation a moonscape with many areas plunged into neolithic conditions. Not to mention the more focused horroe of world's only detonation nuclear weapons. A scant 40 years later, they had the world's most valuable property and a stockmarket making its way to a dizzying 39,000 before plunging to its current sub-10,000 morass. All before the Dow cracked 4,000 for the first time.

Japan's a nation of extremes. Always has been, always will be.