The U.K. and Japan in recession
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 15 February 2024
⏱️ 7 minutes
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Summary
From the BBC World Service: Japan’s economy unexpectedly shrank for the second quarter in a row last year, meaning the country has slipped into recession and lost its spot as the world’s third largest economy. Meanwhile, the U.K. also fell into recession during the final three months of last year. Plus, thousands of vehicles shipped by Volkswagen have been held up at U.S. ports over a Chinese-made component.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For two major economies, the word of the day is recession. |
| 0:04.6 | Hello, you're listening to the Mocka Place Morning Report. |
| 0:07.0 | Live from the BBC World Service, I'm Leanna Byrne and thanks for tuning in. |
| 0:10.9 | Japan's economy unexpectedly shrank for the |
| 0:13.7 | the second quarter in a row last year which means the country has slipped into |
| 0:17.4 | recession and lost its spot as the world's third biggest economy. |
| 0:21.8 | GDP in the fourth quarter contracted by four-tenths of a |
| 0:25.0 | percent year-on-year and there was a 3.3 percent slump in the previous three months |
| 0:30.3 | mainly due to weak household spending. |
| 0:33.1 | Sejo Tukeshta is a professor at the School of Management and Information at the University |
| 0:37.8 | of Shizwoka in Japan and he says it's actually not having much of an impact on everyday lives. |
| 0:44.0 | Well, a lot has not really changed that much over the years. |
| 0:48.2 | As you know, we've had what we call a lost two decades. Not much of a big move, particularly for example in pay. We've had no pay rise in the past 20 years, the only country in OECD nation to have this situation. But the reason why there's no, you know, uprising or uproar |
| 1:06.3 | about this is because we've had deflation. The prices tend to be very stabilized and also considering the quality of life it's not that bad. |
| 1:17.0 | But that said it's been such a long time since we haven't seen a pay rise so even the government is starting to induce this. And also due to the |
| 1:24.9 | inflation, the external factors, we are seeing change in the environment. So obviously, I think we will |
| 1:31.5 | see some almost a transitional type of change that may take place in the next few years |
| 1:36.8 | And my next question is Bank of Japan has been under pressure to lift its ultra low rates but cannot. |
| 1:43.0 | There is not much room in my opinion for Bank of Japan to basically, you know, alter the changes. |
| 1:50.0 | That said, they really have to normalize this you know ultra low interest rate you know policy |
| 1:55.1 | that you were talking about many of the measures which have been extraordinary |
| 1:58.7 | should be normalized because we have to start really thinking about putting discipline into our financial system |
... |
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