Japan Continues To Grow

I think there is a pretty fair and balanced assessment of the current Japan situation by David Turner in today's FT. He makes the following points:

1/. Japan’s economy continued to grow slowly but surely in the third quarter, supported by heavy investment by companies and moderate growth in consumer spending.

2/. The world’s second largest economy was expanding despite a negative contribution from trade. The country’s trade surplus in the period had narrowed on high crude oil prices, reducing overall GDP by 0.1 per cent.

3/. Corporate investment remained one of the high points of the economy, as companies took advantage of continuing high profits. Capital spending rose 0.7 per cent.

4/. The real-term rise in third-quarter GDP was also the slowest this year, compared with the 0.8 per cent growth in the June quarter. Recent data on household spending, such as retail sales, have disappointed economists. Although Japanese consumers are spending more, the country is still far from a consumption boom.

5/. There have been encouraging signs which point to the end of deflation. Property prices are at last rising in Tokyo....At the same time, residential property prices continue to fall throughout most of Japan. Moreover, the Cabinet Office said on Friday that the GDP deflator – which some economists favour as a broad measure of inflation – was 1.1 per cent down on the year.