Japan`s economy stumbles in disaster
Baku, March 15 (AZERTAC). The world`s third-largest economy faltered Monday, the first full business day since Friday`s devastating earthquake, with the Japanese stock market plunging and the country`s central bank is moving to inject $183 billion into money markets to try to stem the financial damage.
Although the quake`s fury bypassed Japan`s industrial heartland, the shock waves were felt throughout the business sector, from big auto plants to small mom-and-pop establishments. Many of Japan`s leading companies, such as Sony Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp., closed some production facilities, further jeopardizing the exporting powerhouse.
On Monday, the Nikkei stock average fell 6.2 percent and the broader Topix index plunged 7.5 percent — both their steepest daily declines since October 2008, when markets were seized with the global financial crisis.
The prospect of rolling power outages, together with transport problems that made it impossible for many people to get to work, put a severe damper on business activity, amid estimates of $170 billion in losses resulting from the quake, which was the strongest temblor ever recorded in Japan.
Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist at Credit Suisse in Tokyo, said damage from this quake was smaller than the Kobe earthquake of 1995, because it struck an area of the country where the main industries are fisheries and agriculture. The longer-term effect of power shortages and evacuations triggered by quake damage at nuclear power plants are more difficult to assess, he said.
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