Japan, the world’s second-largest economy, has officially slipped into recession, hurt by weak export growth and steep cuts in corporate spending amid the worsening global slowdown, reports the NYT. Japan’s GDP shrank at an annual rate of 0.4% from July to September after declining a revised 3.7% in the previous quarter, the government said Monday. It was the first time since 2001 that Japan’s economy has contracted for two consecutive quarters, the definition of a recession. Economists had predicted that Japan’s $5 trillion economy would narrowly avert a recession by posting slight growth. The decline adds to the grim outlook for the global economy, after Hong Kong and the EU released data Friday that showed they were in recession. Europe’s largest economy, Germany, also announced last week it was in recession. The US may follow, after Washington said last month that the American economy contracted in the third quarter.
