The likelihood is growing that Japan’s economy will shrink again this quarter, according to analysts who see the latest surge in virus cases dragging out the country’s bumpy recovery from the pandemic.
Tokyo-based economists at Citigroup, BNP Paribas SA and Dai-ichi Life Research Institute are among those warning that the omicron wave could trigger yet another quarter of negative growth for the world’s third-largest economy.
"The situation is changing fast,” economist Yoshiki Shinke at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute wrote in a report Monday. "The focus now is how weak the economy will be in the first quarter.”