I never thought I'd see the day when a 45% year on year slump would be treated as good news, but here it goes:
April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s export slump slowed in March, ending a four-month streak of record drops and adding to signs the recession may have started to ease.
Overseas shipments slumped 45.6 percent from a year earlier, compared with February’s unprecedented 49.4 percent plunge, the Finance Ministry said today in Tokyo. Economists predicted a 46.4 percent drop.
The drop in shipments to the U.S. and China, Japan’s two largest markets, slowed. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said last week the “sharp decline” in the U.S. may be slowing. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. today raised its economic growth forecast for China to 8.3 percent this year from 6 percent previously, citing Premier Wen Jiabao’s 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus package.
“It would be premature to celebrate,” said David Cohen, director of Asian economic forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore. “There’s no denying the Japanese economy is in its most severe recession since WWII, but at least it’s not spiraling down any more.”
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.2 percent at the morning close in Tokyo. The yen traded at 98.32 against the dollar from 98.60 before the report was published.
Shipments to China sank 31.5 percent in March compared with a year earlier, after falling 39.7 percent in the previous month. Exports to the U.S. fell 51.4 percent after dropping 58.4 in February. On a seasonally adjusted basis, exports rose 2.2 percent from February, the first increase since May.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEvxZ7pOTW04
