Japanese Government Downgrades Economic Assessment

The government on Tuesday downgraded its assessment of the Japanese economy for the second straight month in its monthly report for October, as the consumption tax hike in April continued to hit consumer spending and industrial production.

“The Japanese economy is on a moderate recovery, while weakness can be seen recently,” the Cabinet Office said in its report, in the latest sign that the 3-percentage-point consumption tax hike on April 1 to 8 percent will continue to have an adverse impact on the world’s third-largest economy.

It is the first time since 2012 that the government has downgraded its basic economic assessment for two months in a row.

The downgrading of the economic assessment comes at a time when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he will decide by year-end whether to go ahead with a second consumption tax hike to 10 percent in October 2015 after assessing July-September gross domestic product data.

via Mainichi

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