Japan economy falls 27.8% due to Covid

TOKYO: Japan’s economy shrank at annual rate of 27.8% in Apriljune, the worst contraction on record, as the coronavirus pandemic slammed consumption and trade, according to government data released on Monday.

The cabinet office said Japan’s preliminary seasonally adjusted real GDP fell 7.8% quarter on quarter. The annual rate shows what the number would have been if continued for a year.

Japanese media reported the latest drop was the worst since World War II.

But the cabinet office said comparable records began in 1980. The previous worst contraction, a 17.8% drop, was in the first quarter of 2009, during the global financial crisis.

The world’s third largest economy was already limping along when the virus outbreak struck in China late last year.