Nomura Holdings Inc. says the probability that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic policies will end badly is increasing. The worst-case scenario for Toshihiro Uomoto, the company’s chief credit strategist, to the end of 2017: the economy contracts in the first half of 2016, Abe delays a sales tax rise for ...
The trade deficit swells to a record ¥12.7 trillion due to Japan’s huge post-Fukushima energy bills, but relief might be ...
When Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda met the press last week after the BOJ’s policy meeting, he effectively admitted ...
Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda told the World Economic Forum’s annual Davos meeting that it will take time before structural reforms in Japan begin to produce positive effects. Since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched his “Abenomics” reflationary policy mix two years ago, the ...
The winds of political change are coursing through austerity-weary Greece, but a financial whirlwind may lurk round the corner. Opinion polls ahead of Sunday’s closely watched national election agree: The radical left opposition Syriza party, which has vowed to rewrite the terms of Greece’s ...
Mario Draghi led the European Central Bank into a new era with a historic pledge to buy government bonds as part of an asset-purchase program worth about €1.1 trillion ($1.3 trillion). The ECB president side-stepped German-led opposition to quantitative easing in a once-and-for-all push ...
The Government Pension Investment Fund is closing in on completing a governance overhaul, said the minister in charge of the $1.1 trillion retirement pool. A ministry pension panel formed to decide the fund’s leadership structure will make recommendations on Friday, said Health, Labor and ...
The nation’s leading association of business leaders said Tuesday it will support pay-scale hikes by member companies in the upcoming annual wage talks, adopting the policy for the second straight year. But the Japan Business Federation, better known as Keidanren, showed reluctance to accept ...
A lawmaker who has advised Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on economic policy said he will urge the government to enshrine its inflation-targeting agreements with the Bank of Japan in law as early as next year. Kozo Yamamoto’s comments come as the central bank is ...
The International Monetary Fund has cut its projections for global growth from earlier forecasts in October, citing factors such as weak investment. It also revised downward expectations for major economies such as the eurozone and Japan. The semiannual World Economic Outlook by the Washington-based ...
Industrial output fell a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent in November from the previous month, slightly less than a preliminary figure of 0.6 percent, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Monday. The index of output at factories and mines in the month ...
Consumer confidence improved for the first time in five months in December, the government said on Monday, suggesting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to postpone the second stage of the consumption tax hike has eased fears about Japan’s economic outlook. The seasonally adjusted index ...
Investors who predict the European Central Bank will start buying government bonds this week to fight deflation shouldn’t expect too much if Japan is any guide. The Bank of Japan’s experience is a real-life example of the Keynesian economic theory of a liquidity trap, ...
Labor unions at major electronics makers are planning to demand a hike of ¥6,000 in monthly pay across the board during the upcoming “shunto” annual pay negotiations, industry sources say. It would be the highest demand since a ¥7,000 request filed in 1998. The ...
The success of President Barack Obama’s new Cuba policy depends partly on hotel hand towels — and also working air conditioning, breakfast waffles and the hundreds of other amenities that American tourists will demand when they flood to Cuba in numbers that travel experts ...
