“r.itemList.length” “this.config.text.ariaShown”
“This.config.text.ariaFermé”
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s trade activity at the slowest speed in six months in August, reducing some of the friendliness of lawmakers eager to take more drastic measures to prevent the economy from sinking further into recession.
The world’s third-largest economy is expected to recover in the current quarter after a record drop in April-June, as new cases of coronavirus maintain customers’ morale and slow overall recovery.
Jibun Bank’s final production purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose on Tuesday to 47.2 seasonally adjusted in August from 45.2 in July, marked the slowest contraction since February and also eclipsed an initial reading of 46.6.
“The easing of COVID-19 restrictions around the world has helped mitigate falls in key parameters such as production and new work,” said Annabel Fiddes, IHS Markit’s Associate Director of Economics, which compiles the survey.
But the pandemic continued to restrict the functionality of the sector as a whole, as companies were forced to reduce their costs due to low demand.
Another month of contraction in overall production and new orders kept the overall index below the 50.0 threshold separating the contraction from expansion over a sixteenth month, corresponding to an era until June 2009.
Many analysts are expecting a slight rebound in the third quarter, while a stronger recovery is expected to take time, as a resurgence of global infections and uncertainty about the outlook for the US-Chinese industry threaten to call abroad.
Japan also faces a leadership challenge after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his resignation Friday due to a worsening of a chronic disease, raising doubts about long-term fiscal and financial stimulus policies.
Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said last week that he hoped the economy would return to pre-coronavirus levels in the first quarter of 2022.
“It is to be was hoping that as the world’s economies reopen and industry operations normalize, this will result inArray..Japanese production activity will pick out up in the coming months,” Fiddes said.
(Report through Daniel Leussink; edited through Shri Navaratnam)