Japan’s GDP Shrinks By 4.6 Percent In 2020
May 19, 2021 | Investopaper
Japan’s real gross domestic product (GDP) shrunk by 4.6 percent last year compared to 2019 due to the corona virus epidemic. This is the first sharp drop in GDP in a fiscal year since 1955, according to the Japanese Bureau of Statistics.
Although the Japanese economy grew in the fourth quarter of 2020, that growth was not enough to keep the economy from shrinking that year.
This is the first contraction in real GDP since 2009. At the time, real GDP had shrunk by 5.7 percent amid the global economic meltdown.
On a quarterly basis, real GDP grew by 3 percent in the October-December period compared to the previous quarter. On an annual basis, the growth was 12.7 percent.
The government declared a state of emergency in the Tokyo metropolitan area in early January, following an increase in Covid-19 infections since November last year. But before the ban was lifted in late March, a state of emergency was declared in 47 prefectures in Japan, including Tokyo.
