May 18, 1999
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| May 18, 1999 | atimes.com | |
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| Japan Economy Japan economy plods along with mixed indicators TOKYO - The Economic Planning Agency Friday characterized economic activity in May as ''coming to a halt'' for the third straight month, reporting no major changes from the previous month. Despite greater impact of increased public spending and greater economic support provided by government stimulus measures, personal consumption, capital spending and other indicators of private demand show little technical recovery, the EPA said in its monthly report. Brighter aspects were seen in indicators of housing construction and public spending supported by government stimulus measures. Public works contracts were valued 89 percent higher year on year in March, leading the EPA to raise its characterization of public spending for the May report to ''the full impact of supplementary spending is being felt,'' from April's ''the impact from supplementary spending is strong." Housing construction starts in March were about flat year on year at 1.3 million units, an improvement on the previous month, which had seen a year-on-year decline. Exports to elsewhere in Asia have clearly bottomed out, so the EPA called exports ''by and large unchanged,'' up from ''slightly decreasing'' in the April report. ''A slight increase is apparent'' in imports; an improvement from ''by and large unchanged,'' according to the report.Regarding the financial situation, the EPA detects ''a greater degree of stability than in April." The employment situation deteriorated for the second straight month. With the unemployment rate hitting a new all-time high in March, the EPA noted ''an increase in the ranks of the unemployed due to dismissals from work,'' for the first time in four months. The poor jobs situation has also hurt personal consumption, which went from ''low level, but with an approaching halt to the slide,'' in April, to ''low level due to slumping income'' in May. (Asia Pulse/Nikkei) | |||||||||
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