International News

TOKYO, (APP/AFP) – Japan’s economy barely grew
in the second quarter, revised data showed Thursday, further calling into question Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s big-spending easy-money policy drive.
While the figures were a slight improvement on the zero expansion in
earlier estimates — owing to an upward revision in capital spending and public investment — they were still well below the previous three months’ figures.
And analysts were cool on the prospects for future growth in the
world’s number-three economy.
“It’s getting better but the economy is lacking a growth engine and
overall the outlook is pretty bleak,” said Kohei Iwahara, a Japan economist at French bank Natixis.
“There may be some growth in the third quarter but nothing exciting
— I’m not optimistic.”
Japanese leaders have struggled to get a strong handle on the
economy, which contracted in the last three months of 2015, before bouncing back in January-March with a 0.5 percent rise on-quarter and 2.1 percent annualised.
It expanded 0.2 percent on-quarter in April-June and 0.7 percent on
an annualised basis.
The unsteady trend is putting pressure on Japanese officials to
deliver as economists increasingly write off Abe’s more than three-year attempt to cement a lasting recovery, dubbed Abenomics.
Tokyo recently announced a whopping 28 trillion yen ($275 billion)
package aimed at kick-starting growth, after Britain’s June vote to quit the European Union sent financial markets into a tailspin and sparked a rally in the yen, which is hurting corporate profits.