Japan slips into recession, becoming the 4th-largest economy, behind the US, China and now Germany.
Japan’s economy is now the world’s fourth-largest after it contracted in the last quarter of 2023 and fell behind Germany.
The government reported the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.4% in October to December, according to Cabinet Office data on real GDP, though it grew 1.9% for all of 2023.
It contracted 2.9% in July-September. Two straight quarters of contraction are considered an indicator an economy is in a technical recession.
Japan’s economy was the second largest until 2010, when it was overtaken by China’s. Japan’s nominal GDP totaled $4.2 trillion last year, while Germany’s was $4.4 trillion, or $4.5 trillion, depending on the currency conversion.
You know not everything is a problem of too little or too much immigration…
What? Yeah except I’m not talking about everything I’m talking about the economy. Dying countries have low immigration and Japan’s self-imposed rules are pushing it into a recession because a lack of human workers leads to a weak workforce.
But I’d love to hear your theory on why Japan has fallen behind Germany.