Coronavirus officially called the deadliest disease, has brought the world down to its knees. Declared as the pandemic, it has affected approximately 180 countries with USA suffering with maximum cases. On a bad note, the pandemic has majorly affected world economy and in shocking news Japan has sunk into the recession.
World’s 3rd largest economy after the USA and China, Japan’s economy shrank 0.9% in January to March quarter declaring a recession in the country. Due to the outbreak, the country’s economy was already showing negative growth from the past two quarters with shrinking by 3.4% earlier.
“The economy entered the coronavirus shock in a very weak position, but the real big ugly stuff is going to happen in the April, June print. It’s going to be three-quarters of very negative growth,” said Izumi Devalier, chief Japan economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
He added that businesses were already staggering before the COVID-19 outbreak. The country suffered losses due to the Typhoon Hagibis, a powerful storm that hit the country last fall. But, the Coronavirus outbreak broke the purchasing power of consumers which ultimately led to a recession in the country.
One of Japan’s economist said that Exports which used to contribute to 16 percent of the sales has sharply dropped to 6 percent and worse is coming. He directly said, “It is just the tip of an iceberg, much worse is expected in the future.” The government has already announced a package of $1 trillion stimulus package to protect the economy from fallout and is taking every possible measure to control the situation.
Apart from this, after Japan, countries like Germany and France are also on the verge of recession. In this unfortunate situation, all the countries are making efforts to make the ends meet and to find a permanent solution to coronavirus.
