Japan's economy in trouble

Japan's 4Q GDP revision confirms deep recession
Japan's economy shrank a bit less than first estimated in the fourth quarter, but the revised government data Thursday is hardly good news, serving only to underscore the increasingly grim picture for the world's second-largest economy. Export demand has collapsed, corporate profits are swerving into losses, and job losses are accelerating nationwide amid Japan's steepest slump since the end of World War II. Analysts say the current downturn — and the response of Japanese companies to it — have combined into a new kind of recession, that's swifter and deeper than ever before. "The Japanese economy was simply collapsing and nose-diving toward the end of last year," said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo.

China: The Great Fall

Judging by the latest Merrill Lynch survey of fund managers, investors have a touching faith that China is going to rescue us all and re-ignite the commodity boom. How can this be? Taiwan's exports to China fell 55pc in January, Japan's fell 45pc. These exports are links in the supply chain for China's industry. Manufacturing output in the Shanghai region fell 12pc in January. Source

China nears deflation trap as rail freight collapses
Railway freight in China’s Shanghai region plunged 31pc in January and industrial production fell 12pc, dashing hopes that Beijing’s stimulus policies will soon begin to fuel recovery.

Asian economies in trouble

Dire growth data fuel Asian fears

Weak growth data from India and Malaysia on Friday provided fresh evidence of the deepening impact of the global recession on developing Asia.

Japan’s manufacturing output suffered a record 10 per cent month-on-month drop in January. New job offers in Japan also plummeted 18 per cent to complete an abysmal set of recent figures from the world’s second-largest economy, including a record 45.7 per cent fall in exports in January.

The collapse in Asian exports over the fourth quarter was “nothing short of breath-taking”, said Frederic Neumann, Asia chief economist at HSBC. “Economic models and experience suggest that financial turmoil tends to transmit far more gradually into the real economy than has occurred this time around. In fact, the severity and rapidity of the fall in output exceeds anything we have ever seen before.”