Japanese GDP Growth Collapses

 | Feb 17, 2020 09:22

The Japanese economy shrunk by an impressive 1.6%, the biggest decline since Q2 2014. Just like then, the negative impact of a sales tax hike explains a large part of the negative GDP growth. Government measures to ease the impact of the tax hike seem to have had little effect.

With the outbreak of the coronavirus putting downward pressure on this quarter’s GDP growth, the odds are relatively high that Japan is heading into a recession.