"Japan's economy can emerge from recession in the first quarter as consumer spending and exports are expected to pick up"
- Yasuo Yamamoto, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute
The industrial output in the world's third largest economy expanded in December, albeit slower-than-expected, the Ministry of economy, Trade and Industry showed Friday. Japanese industrial production rose 2.4% in the last month of 2012, from 2.5% growth in the preceding month, helped by a pick-up in the transport equipment and general machinery sectors. The capacity utilisation index gained 2.9% in December from a month earlier to 84.6, the data showed. As the industrial production is correlated with consumer conditions, such as employment levels and earnings, improvement reflects that Shinzo Abe's pledge to introduce more bold measures, in order to boost growth, made consumers less anxious of the further economic development.
"These are pre-Abe numbers," said Takuji Okubo, chief economist at Japan Macro Advisors who formerly worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. "He was only prime minister for about the last week of the quarter. We will see a fairly big pick up this year, led by exports recovering on the weaker yen."
"Japan's economy can emerge from recession in the first quarter as consumer spending and exports are expected to pick up," said Yasuo Yamamoto, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute.
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