Japan posts record economic plunge in Q2

Modest rebound: A file pictue showing a store at a shopping district in Tokyo. Many analysts expect any rebound in the current quarter to be modest as a renewed rise in infections keep consumers’ purse-strings tight. — Reuters

TOKYO: Japan was hit by its biggest economic slump on record in the second quarter as the coronavirus pandemic emptied shopping malls and crushed demand for cars and other exports, bolstering the case for bolder policy action to prevent a deeper recession.

The third straight quarter of declines knocked the size of real gross domestic product (GDP) to decade-low levels, wiping out the benefits brought by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” stimulus policies deployed in late 2012.