Reuters (April 6)
On top of February’s big drop in household spending, down 0.9% from a year earlier, “separate data showed wages fell for the third straight month in February, reinforcing the view the Bank of Japan’s 2 percent inflation target will remain a distant goal and keep the bank from dialing back stimulus any time soon.”
Tags: BOJ, Data, February, Household spending, Inflation target, Stimulus, Wages
Bloomberg (February 6)
“Just a few weeks ago, Wall Street analysts were busy boosting their economic forecasts on the expectation that President Trump would implement sweeping corporate-tax reform, a rollback of regulations, and new fiscal stimulus.” After seeing the first two weeks of the Trump Presidency, the analysts are having second thoughts. Their forecasts are now poised for “a rethink, if not an outright reversal.”
Tags: Analysts, Expectation, Forecasts, Regulations, Rethink, Reversal, Second thoughts, Stimulus, Tax reform, Trump, Wall Street
Bloomberg (August 3)
Japan’s new proposal for stimulus “might win a few halfhearted cheers from Japan’s battered consumers, but it’s unlikely to have much of an effect. First, it’s just another in a long series of such moves, none of which have done much to jog the country out of its long, grinding stagnation.” While it “might keep the economy from falling into a recession…it’s unlikely to alter the anemic trends of recent years.”
Bloomberg (May 16)
“Never before has the Bank of Japan done so much to achieve so little. Even after arranging a record stimulus program and reducing a key interest rate to less than zero, the central bank has failed to boost inflation to its goal of 2 percent…. A central bank using up its policy tools doesn’t bode well for a nation with the world’s largest debt burden.”
Tags: BOJ, Central bank, Debt burden, Goal, Inflation, Interest rate, Policy tools, Stimulus
Bloomberg (April 18)
“The death toll from earthquakes that struck southern Japan rose to 42 and the economic impact began to reverberate Monday as companies surveyed damage and the potential effects on production from supply-chain disruptions.” Amidst the uncertainty, investors “are speculating that Japan’s government and central bank will need to consider more stimulus for an economy that is already struggling.”
Tags: BOJ, Damage, Deaths, Earthquakes, Economic impact, Government, Investors, Japan, Production, Stimulus, Supply-chain disruptions, Uncertainty
Bloomberg (February 1)
“The Bank of Japan governor’s major additions to stimulus in 2013 and the following year were unequivocally good for equities…. The latest salvo to spur inflation- negative interest rates on some deposits- is less straightforward.” Kuroda’s surprise move to negative rates has earned everything from praise to criticism, with some taking a wait-and-see approach.
Tags: BOJ, Deposits, Equities, Inflation, Interest rates, Kuroda, Stimulus, Straightforward
Wall Street Journal (September 15)
“The world’s second-largest economy is faring worse than previously thought, with government stimulus measures proving too short-lived to counter China’s sharp real-estate downturn or to prop up flagging factory output.” The slowdown in growth was highlighted by a slump in industrial production which fell to levels last seen during the financial crisis. “The falloff comes as Europe is stumbling and the U.S. recovery looks more moderate than expected, leaving the world in search of economic growth.”
Tags: China, Downturn, Economy, Europe, Factory output, Financial Crisis, Government, Growth, Industrial production, Real estate, Recovery, Stimulus, U.S.
Financial Times (December 31, 2014)
“Japan is no longer a backwater for investors…. The authorities are saying the right things and doing most of them.” Japan outperformed in 2013 and despite concerns over the consumption tax increase in 2014, Japan’s prospects remain robust. “With a wide range of one-off stimulus measures in force to counter a shock that may not come, we think growth could surprise significantly to the upside.”
Wall Street Journal (October 2)
The rise in Japan’s consumption tax is an unwelcome return to the old “tax and spend” playbook. Of the estimated $88 billion in revenue, over $50 billion is marked for spending as stimulus. “More rapid and durable economic growth is the only escape from Japan’s self-constructed fiscal trap. Mr. Abe still has a chance to rescue his economic program with a new reform plan, the long-awaited ‘third arrow.’ But with his tax increase he is creating another headwind to overcome.”
Tags: Abe, Consumption tax, Economic growth, Fiscal trap, Headwind, Japan, Reform, Revenue, Stimulus, Tax and spend, Tax increase, Third arrow
Financial Times (July 25)
“Since taking office in the spring, the new Chinese leadership knew it had to boost a slowing economy, while, at the same time, rebalancing it away from state-driven investment. Some of the measures included in the ‘mini-stimulus’ Beijing announced on Wednesday strike this difficult balance.” By cutting red tape for exporters and taxes for small companies, the package may succeed in letting “hundreds of small firms bloom.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Economy, Exporters, Leadership, Rebalancing, Slowing, Stimulus, Taxes
