Japan’s GDP contracted by 7.8% between April and June compared to the first quarter of the year due to the impact of the new coronavirus pandemic, a historic drop that adds to that of the two previous quarters.
This contraction of 7.8% in the second quarter, according to preliminary data published on Monday by the government, is the third followed after those registered in the first quarter of this year (-0.6%) and the last three months of 2019 (-1.9%), and which have led to the recession in the third largest economy in the world.
It is Japan’s first recession since 2015, defined by a contraction in national wealth for two consecutive quarters.
It’s also the most brutal drop in Japan’s GDP since comparative data was established in 1980.
The consensus of economists consulted by the Bloomberg agency predicted a fall of 7.5%.
The archipelago’s economy, already in difficulties since the last quarter of 2019 due to the VAT hike in October, was weighed down by the coronavirus already in the first quarter of 2020.
In the second quarter, activity suffered due to the state of emergency decreed in the country in April and May, which meant a setback for consumption, which contracted by 8.6% in this period, while company investments fell 0 , 2% (real estate) and 1.5% (other sectors).
Exports also fell 18.5% and imports 0.5%, while public investment contracted in the first quarter but increased 1.2% between April and June.
With some 54,000 reported cases and about a thousand deaths from covid-19, Japan has been less hit than most European and American countries.
The euro zone recorded a 12.1% contraction of GDP in the second quarter, hampered above all by the significant falls in the French, Italian and Spanish economies.
