Economics
Japan’s Economy Set to Crater by a Record in Awful Quarter
- 2Q GDP seen shrinking at annualized pace of 27% on Covid hit
- Virus’s resurgence could weigh on fragile recovery under way
Pedestrians wearing protective masks in the Shibuya district of Tokyo.
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Japan’s pandemic-hit economy shrank last quarter by the most in records going back to 1955, official data is set to show Monday, with a resurgence of the virus threatening to slow a fragile recovery now under way.
Analysts see gross domestic product contracting at an annualized pace of 27% in the three months through June. That means the world’s third-largest economy will have declined in size for three straight quarters, hit first by trade wars and a sales tax hike, then by the virus.