Japanese Trade Data Collapses, Crushes “Devalue Our Way To Prosperity” Dreams
Japanese trade data was just unleashed on the world… and it is abysmal.
- *JAPAN JAN. EXPORTS FALL 12.9% Y/Y
Notably worse than the expected 10.9% drop and the biggest YoY plunge since October 2009.
Proving once and for all that the devaluation of the JPY did less-than-nothing to improve Japan’s competitiveness…
And then there is Imports – reflecting the “modest” improvement in the domestic economy…
- *JAPAN JAN. IMPORTS FALL 18.0% Y/Y
Nope – complete carnage!! The biggest YoY drop since october 2009…
Is it any wonder Abe says no more stimulus and Kuroda did not unleash anymore QE – they know it’s over and now it’s desperation.
We leave it to Alhambra’s Jeff Snider to sum up… Japan is the very definition of insanity…
GDP fell 1.4% in Q4 2015, marking the fifth contraction out of the past nine quarters and yet the word “stimulus” remains attached to QQE, the Bank of Japan and Abenomics in general. At this point, how much more time and sample size is necessary before calling it a failure? In about six weeks, Kuroda’s massive “stimulus” will mark its third anniversary and the best that can be said of it is that GDP has gone nowhere. Two and three quarters years later, real GDP (SAAR) in the last three months of 2015 was the slightest bit higher than Q2 2013 when everyone was so sure “stimulus” was all so sure.
The media provides all the evidence necessary as to why everything is so “unexpected.”
The data suggest Japan’s economy is still plagued by the weakness of domestic demand as it enters a fourth year of record monetary stimulus, with wages not rising fast enough to persuade consumers to spend.
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