Japan Exports Plunge Record 27% as Recession Deepens (Update1)

[RedEarth]

Source: Bloomberg

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s exports plunged the most on record in November as global demand for cars and electronics collapsed, signaling more factory shutdowns and job cuts are likely as the recession deepens.

Exports fell 26.7 percent from a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said today in Tokyo. That was more than the 22.3 percent decline estimated by economists and the sharpest since comparable data were made available in 1980.

Shipments to the U.S. slid an unprecedented 34 percent and sales to China slumped the most in 13 years, underscoring why the Bank of Japan lowered its key interest rate to 0.1 percent last week. The yen’s surge to a 13-year high is amplifying the woes of exporters including Toyota Motor Corp., which may announce a lower earnings forecast at a press briefing today.

‘Japan’s export crash is finally upon us, and this is the worst thing that could happen,” said Yoshiki Shinke, a senior economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo. “The recession will be very severe as companies adjust investment, production and labor.”



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHMpJiTOIn10

[StudsT]

1. yikes - this is definately looking more and more like a 'GREAT' depression - N/T

:scared:

StudsT

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Well, if not a Great Depression, then at least

a pretty good one.

Actually, I think we're in for at least a decade of hell if we don't make some MAJOR shifts in our economic structures. Capitalist greed is becoming a luxury we can no longer afford.

[Shardik]

3. I'm really beginning to believe that we've got some hard times a'coming.

Thanks, George. Is there anything in America that you didn't fuck up?

[NJCher]

4. what the hell did they expect

They've killed the goose that laid the golden egg: the American middle class.




Cher