The Japanese Economy in Structural Difficulties

According to The Annual Economic Fiscal Report (July 2004) prepared by the Ministry of Economic and Fiscal Policy, the Japanese economy is recovering from the prolonged stagnation that began with the bursting of the financial bubble in 1990-91. This recovery started at the beginning of 2002. It is characterized by the restored increase of both profitability and spending on plant and equipment in the private business sector and an increase in demand from abroad, while public spending (like public works) has been rather held down. In the fiscal year 2003 (up through March 2004) for instance, the Japanese real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was said to have grown by 3.2 percent. Contributions to this growth rate came from the growth of domestic demand in the private sector (2.9 percent) and the growth of foreign demand (0.8 percent), offset by a mild decline in government spending (minus 0.6 percent). The annualized rate of GDP growth in the quarter January-March 2004 was said to have reached 5.6 percent and especially encouraged the official expectation of a strong economic recoveryThis article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website

Christian ministry · Economic growth · Economic policy · Economics · Economy · Fiscal policy · Fiscal year · Geography · Gross domestic product · Macroeconomics · Monetary economics · Political science · Private sector · Profitability index · Public sector · Quarter (Canadian coin) · Real gross domestic product · Finance · Japanese History and Culture

• Regional Decline of Manufacturing Employment in Japan during an Era of Prolonged Stagnation

  Shawn Banasick, Robert Q Hanham et al.•Regional Studies•2008

  Add to list