Nikkei: April-June GDP to be Revised Downward

September 4, 2007
By Ken Worsley

Just yesterday, we speculated whether the unexpected drop in capital spending for the April-June quarter in Japan would translate into lowered expectations for revised GDP figures for that same quarter when the Cabinet Office announces them next Monday.

Back on August 13, the Cabinet Office announced in its preliminary GDP figure that GDP had grown 0.1% in the April-June quarter. However, this morning, the Nikkei announced that its survey of 13 private economists showed an expectation that revised GDP would come to -0.2%, for an annualized rate of -0.7%.

That pessimism, however, is not fully carried forward to the future. The Nikkei quotes Takahide Kiuchi of the Nomura Securities Financial and Economic Research Center as saying, “It is premature to say that capital spending will keep losing speed. Economic growth will slowly gain momentum from the July-September quarter.”

It’s a familiar tune. Hopefully we will actually get to hear it being played sometime soon.

Filed Under Cabinet Office, Capital Spending, GDP