The Perfect Storm

Source: Telegraph

The indicators were so bad that analysts have described it as the day the “perfect storm” came ashore.

Japan’s unemployment soared at the fastest rate in 44 years to 4.4 per cent in December, while industrial output fell a record 9.6 per cent in the same month and retail sales shrank 2.7 per cent, the fourth straight month of decline.

All the bad news undermined Prime Minister Taro Aso’s confident declaration to Parliament on Wednesday that, “By taking bold countermeasures, Japan will aim to be the first to emerge from this recession.”

Of particular concern will be the rapid increase in the unemployment figures, with 390,000 losing their jobs in December alone, bringing the national total to 2.7 million out of work.

“These figures are the perfect storm for the Japanese economy and were the only missing element that kept any optimism in the economy at all,” said Martin Schulz, senior economist with the Fujitsu Research Institute.

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Technorati Tags: Japan, unemployment

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