Official data on Friday (March 2) revealed that Japan’s unemployment rate stood at 2.4% in January, its lowest in almost 25 years, a major boost for the world’s third-largest economy.
The reading, the bottom since April 1993, when the speed was 2.3 percent, coincided with Japan’s eighth consecutive quarter of economic growth, its longest positive streak because the bubble economy of the late Eighties.
Japan’s government and central bank are counting on a “vicious circle” by which an export-led recovery will boost jobs and household incomes, and thus domestic demand, which accounts for about 60% of the Japanese economy.
But the previous economic powerhouse still faces deflation fears and has failed to fulfill the central bank’s 2.0% inflation goal, which is seen as crucial to boosting the economy.
Experts say the important thing to ending deflation is boosting domestic demand, which requires raising employees’ wages and allaying concerns about soaring welfare costs in a rapidly ageing society.
The data comes pretty much as good news for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a day after he was forced to resign in a compromising manner over a key a part of his economic policy, namely labour market reform.
Source: This is a component of an article originally published on Asia News Channel.
