Japan's economy has risen sharply in the quarter, with the government planning stimuli

Japan's economy has risen sharply in the quarter, with the government planning stimuli

On Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced a stimulus package worth a total of 73.6 trillion yen (582.74 billion euros) to help the economy recover from the recession caused by the new coronavirus pandemic. The Cabinet should approve this package later in the day. At a meeting with government parties, Suga said he wanted to protect jobs, help businesses and pave the way for boosting economic growth through environmentally friendly digital technologies. Current fiscal expenditures are at the level of about JPY 40 trillion. The Japanese economy is already drawing on a stimulus package that is straining the budget, and will continue to do so next year. To finance the incentives, Japan is preparing a third budget amendment for the current fiscal year, ending March 31, 2021. The government also released revised statistics on Tuesday, which show that the Japanese economy grew by as much as 22.9% year on year in July-September, and not by 21.4%, as preliminary data suggested. It was its first growth after three quarters of decline and also surpassed the estimates of analysts, who expected it to expand by 21.5% after falling by 28.8% in the previous quarter. However, experts warned that it could take years for the Japanese economy to fully recover from the effects of the pandemic. In a quarter-on-quarter comparison, Japan's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5% over the period under review, after declining by 8.2% in the previous three months. At the same time, capital expenditures decreased by 2.4% quarter on quarter, but external demand increased by 2.7% and private consumption increased by 5.1% (after a decrease of 8.1% in the previous three months).