{"id":105367,"date":"2025-05-16T04:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T04:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/105367\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T04:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T04:48:12","slug":"japans-economy-shrinks-as-trumps-trade-war-hits-exports-and-shakes-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/105367\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan’s economy shrinks as Trump’s trade war hits exports and shakes confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TOKYO (AP) \u2014 The Japanese economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.7% in the first quarter, according to government data released Friday, as U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s trade war<\/a> hurt exports and dented consumer confidence.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s real gross domestic product, or the measure of a nation\u2019s goods and services, shrank at a greater-than-expected 0.2% in January-March compared to the previous quarter in the first contraction in a year, the Cabinet Office\u2019s seasonally adjusted preliminary data showed.<\/p>\n

Exports declined at an annual rate of 2.3%. Consumer spending remained flat, while capital investment grew 5.8%.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s tariffs are likely to hurt Japan\u2019s giant exporters, especially the automakers<\/a>, not only for products shipped from Japan, but from other nations, like Mexico and Canada. Officials acknowledge planning a response is a challenge because Trump keeps changing his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegional automakers face increased operating costs and potential revenue losses because their U.S. sales depend on diverse production bases and supply chains,\u201d S&P Global Ratings said in a report.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven companies with minimal sales in the U.S. could face indirect but meaningful impacts as tariffs affect global economy and consumer demand,” it said.<\/p>\n

The Japanese economy has been struggling for years, plagued by weak demand as the population ages and declines, as more people stay single and have fewer children.<\/p>\n

The Bank of Japan<\/a>, which kept interest rates at zero or minus levels for years, has been gradually raising the benchmark rate, noting wages are holding up and prices are gradually rising.<\/p>\n

The latest findings, which seem to highlight the fragility of the economy<\/a>, make it more likely the central bank might hold off on further rate hikes.<\/p>\n

Some analysts are advocating lowering the 10% consumption tax, which is similar to the sales tax in other nations, to help alleviate people\u2019s hardships.<\/p>\n

But so far Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba<\/a> hasn\u2019t said he supports the idea. Japan’s national finances are under severe strain due to ballooning social welfare costs.<\/p>\n

The economy grew an annual rate of 2.4% in the last quarter of 2024.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https:\/\/www.threads.com\/@yurikageyama<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO (AP) \u2014 The Japanese economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.7% in the first quarter, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[48378,51,23704,32,1700,3055,28144,2122,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-105367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-bank-of-japan","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-consumer-confidence","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-global-economy","14":"tag-gross-domestic-product","15":"tag-japan","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114515706145914509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}