Japan's economy continues to flounder

Recent economic numbers and corporate figures from Japan have been disappointing ' September's industrial production fell 12.7% year-on-year, lower than consensus estimates and indeed the greatest fall since the 1975. Unemployment reached a record high of 5.3%, the largest increase since March 1967. However, there may be reason to believe that Topix has already bottomed. The Bank of Japan's (BoJ) latest GDP forecasts suggest falls of 1.2% in the year to March 2002 and 1.1% in the following year, while the CPI number is likely to fall by about 1% in this year and next. We are part way thr...