Japan's GDP contracted 2% yoy between January and March
Japan's gross domestic product (GDP) fell in the first quarter of this year by 2% year-on-year, according to preliminary data published today by the Executive, which represents the second consecutive quarter of economic contraction.
Between January and March, the third world economy fell by 0.9% compared to the last quarter of 2019, according to the first estimate made by the Cabinet Office with inflation-adjusted data.
These GDP data provide the first measure of the impact of the new coronavirus pandemic on the Japanese economy, which thus accumulated two consecutive quarters to the downside after falling between 0.7% year-on-year and 1% between October and December 2019. 8% quarter-on-quarter.
Preliminary figures point to the recession of the Japanese economy, and although they are better than most analysts predicted, the impact of COVID-19 is feared to be even more noticeable since April, when the state of Health alert across Japan for the virus.
Household consumption, the main pillar of the Japanese economy, was the factor that most contributed to the fall in GDP between January and March, with a drop of 2.8% compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
Domestic spending was clearly affected by the authorities' recommendations to stay home as much as possible and by the cancellation of massive sporting and cultural events since the beginning of March due to the pandemic.
Exports, another important component of the Japanese GDP, fell by 6.2% year-on-year, in the context of interruptions in production, problems in the supply chain and a drop in global demand derived from the worldwide spread of the new coronavirus .
In this same scenario, the capital investment of the companies fell by 4.2%.
Instead, state investment increased by 2.5% compared to the first quarter of 2019, driven by the multimillion-dollar stimulus program that the Shinzo Abe government has carried out to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.
At an annualized rate, a measure used to estimate the rate of economic expansion, the Japanese economy fell 3.4% in the first quarter.
