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Strategies & Market Trends : JAPAN-Nikkei-Time to go back up? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: borb who wrote (1081)	6/8/1998 7:42:00 PM
From: JEFF CHAPMAN	Respond to of 3902

TOKYO, June 9 (Kyodo) -- The Economic Planning Agency (EPA) on Tuesday painted a bleak assessment of the nation's economy, citing an increasingly adverse impact of sluggish demand on overall economic activity. ''The severe condition remains and we slightly emphasized added severity,'' Akira Furukawa, head of the EPA First Domestic Research Division, told reporters during a briefing on the EPA June economic report. The EPA May report simply noted that an adverse impact had been observed on the overall economy. Furukawa said, however, he does not believe the economy is heading for further decline. The June assessment of the economy is based largely on economic and business data recorded in April -- the latest month for which complete information is available. In April, the jobless rate hit a record 4.1%, while housing starts dropped 16.1% from a year before -- a sharper fall than in March -- and export data also was weak after staying generally flat in the previous month. Unemployment increased in all age brackets of the working population, while income data also indicated decreases for April, Furukawa said. The June report cited increased caution about personal consumption, which accounts for roughly 60% of Japan's gross domestic product. After showing increases in some areas in March, April data for personal spending, such as retail sales and new-vehicle sales, indicated declines in a broader range, the EPA report said. Furukawa said ''weak consumption is impacting production and employment, '' citing a buildup in inventory. But, given some data available for May, he expects consumption to pick up slightly in the months ahead. As measures taken by the government to cope with such severe economic conditions, the EPA report cited steps drawn up June 2 to address the deteriorating job market, in addition to the 16.65 trillion yen economic stimulus package adopted in April. BTW, I got this story from mytrack.com's software which is free and can be downloaded here: mytrack.com If you do sign up for this (you get Comtex newswires plus Marketguide reports for free, with news/quotes in streaming format), please put 'Muthavugah' in the referred by field... jc