Japan Unemployment, Retail Sales Show Signs Economy Reviving Before Quake
Japan’s Jobless Rate Fell to 4.6% in February
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
Japan’s unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent in February, the statistics bureau said today in Tokyo.
Japan’s unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent in February, the statistics bureau said today in Tokyo. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
Japan’s unemployment rate fell in February and retail sales beat analysts’ forecasts, signs that the economy was picking up before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern regions.
The jobless rate unexpectedly slid to 4.6 percent from the previous month’s 4.9 percent, the statistics bureau said today in Tokyo. The median estimate of 24 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for the rate to be unchanged. Retail sales rose 0.1 percent from a year earlier, beating forecasts for a 0.5 percent drop, the Trade Ministry said in a separate report.
Japanese stocks fell as authorities struggled to prevent a nuclear crisis at a stricken plant from worsening after potentially fatal levels of radiation were detected. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. today said the economy will shrink next quarter and lowered its growth forecast for the year starting April 1 to 0.7 percent from 1.3 percent.
“It’s encouraging to see Japan was on a solid recovery trend until February, but that’s hardly enough to make us optimistic about the outlook,” said Yuichi Kodama, chief economist at Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. in Tokyo, who also forecasts gross domestic product will contract in the three- month period from April. “The economy will be in the lull at least until September as production slows drastically because of the power shortage.”
Nikkei Falls
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 1.4 percent to 9,342.33 at 10:51 a.m. in Tokyo. It has lost about 10 percent since the temblor. Japan’s benchmark 10-year government bond yield dropped 2.5 basis points to 1.22 percent.
The economy added 370,000 jobs in February, the third monthly increase, today’s report showed. The seasonally adjusted figures show more people also returned to the labor force.
Export growth accelerated to 9 percent in February from 1.4 percent in the previous month, evidence that overseas demand was driving a rebound in the world’s third-largest economy. A report tomorrow will probably show industrial production fell 0.1 percent after rising for three months, according to the median estimate of 24 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Household spending fell 0.2 percent after a 1 percent decline in January, the statistics bureau said. The job-to- applicant ratio rose to 0.62, indicating there were 62 positions for every 100 candidates in February, the highest since January 2009, the Labor Ministry said.
Quake Impact
“We look for employment indicators to continue showing gradual improvements in the months ahead, but believe there could be some temporary fluctuations due to the impact of the earthquake,” Kyohei Morita, Tokyo-based chief economist at Barclays Capital, said before the data was released.
Today’s jobless figures don’t include data from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, where data collection was disrupted by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake that struck the Tohoku region, the statistics bureau said.
The government estimates damage from the disaster, which left more than 27,000 people dead or missing, at as high as 25 trillion yen ($306 billion).
Separately, South Korea’s current-account surplus widened to $1.18 billion in February from $154.7 million in January, boosted by export growth, according to Bank of Korea data released today. The current account is the broadest measure of trade, tracking goods, services and investment income.
The surplus may increase further in March due to “robust” exports, and Japan’s quake may also bolster it by prompting South Korean manufacturers to produce parts domestically, Yang Jae Ryong, a director of the monetary and financial statistics division at the Bank of Korea, told reporters in Seoul today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Toru Fujioka in Tokyo at tfujioka1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Panckhurst at ppanckhurst@bloomberg.net
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