Japan Govt Keeps Economic View Unchanged in Sept.

Tokyo, Sept. 29 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government left its basic economic assessment unchanged in a monthly report released Monday, while expressing concerns over the impact of President Donald Trump’s high tariffs on the Japanese auto sector. “The Japanese economy is recovering at a moderate pace, while the effects caused from the U.S. trade policies are seen mainly in the automotive industry,” said the September report released by the Cabinet Office. While maintaining its basic economic assessment, the government changed the wording of the view in response to the sluggish performances of automakers and declines in their exports of passenger cars to the United States. In its July and August reports, the government said “the effects caused from the U.S. trade policies…are seen in some areas.” Looking ahead, the September report said that “attention should be given to downside risks of the Japanese economy due to the impact of the U.S. trade policies.” In the September report, the government revised up its assessment on personal spending, the main pillar of domestic demand, for the first time in 13 months, saying, “Private consumption shows movements of picking up.” The government removed a sentence saying that “the improvement in consumer sentiment is slow,” citing a slowdown in the pace of food price increases and an agreement on tariff negotiations between Japan and the United States. “Business investment is picking up moderately,” the government said in the September report, upgrading its assessment on corporate capital expenditures for the first time in 18 months, after upward momentum was confirmed in economic data such as a quarterly business sentiment survey. The August report said that “business investment shows movements of picking up.” The September report also said that domestic corporate goods prices have been flat recently thanks mainly to the effects of the government’s electricity and gas subsidies, after last month referring to a slowdown in the pace of increase. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]