Another ray of F*#%&#* sunshine, this time from Japan -
Japan's May Production Falls 1.2%, More Than
Expected (Update3)
By Ann Saphir, with reporting by Neha Kumar and Yoshiko Matsushita
Tokyo, June 28 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese production fell a more-than-expected
1.2 percent in May as companies made fewer autos and cell phones.
Government plans to cap spending and stop banks lending to insolvent
companies may keep the world's second-biggest economy in recession for more
than a year.
The third straight decline sent production to its lowest in two years, the Ministry
of Economy, Trade and Industry said. Economists had forecast a 0.2 percent
drop after a 2 percent decline in April.
The government has said its policies will keep economic growth below 1 percent
for a few years and push up unemployment. Companies such as Furukawa
Electric Co. and Nikon Corp. have lowered profit forecasts as sales slow and the
Bank of Japan's Tankan survey, out Monday, is expected to show business
confidence has sunk to its lowest in almost two years.
``We're falling so rapidly,'' said Ron Bevacqua, senior economist at Commerz
Securities (Japan) Co. ``Even if we hit bottom, that's not the same thing as
recovery, because I just don't see where demand is going to come from.'' |
