Japan's Land, Stockholding Assets
Fall 145 Trln Yen In 1997
TOKYO (Nikkei)--The value of Japanese assets declined 145.5
trillion yen last year, due mainly to falling land and stock prices,
the Economic Planning Agency said in its fiscal 1997 report on
National Accounts released Friday. This is the largest loss in five
years.
Among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development members, Japan fell to fourth place after
Luxembourg, Switzerland and Norway in terms of per capita
gross domestic product, which stood at 33,289 dollars in 1997.
The country's total land assets declined for the seventh straight
year, its stockholdings for the third year in a row. Cumulative
losses on land assets since 1991 totaled 730 trillion yen, while
stockholdings have fallen in value by 555 trillion yen since 1990.
Gross losses amounted to 1,285 trillion yen, 2.5 times as much
as Japan's annual GDP.
Financial institutions' net interest receipts in fiscal 1997 fell 400
billion yen to 23.6 trillion yen, the first fall in four years, while the
household sector's receipts increased 400 billion yen to 15.7
trillion yen, the first rise in five years. A shift in income from
households to the financial sector, spurred by the Bank of
Japan's ultra-low interest rate policy, seems to have stopped.
Japan remained the second-largest economic power after the
U.S. with a nominal GDP of 4.19 trillion dollars in 1997.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Friday evening edition) |
