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16 May 2013
Forex Flash: Japan the fastest growing nation in G7 - BBH
FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - Brown Brothers Harriman analysts note that Japan reported a stronger than expected Q1 GDP expansion, confirming it was the fastest growing economy in the G7.
They begin by noting that the world's third largest economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.5%, faster than the 2.7% expected and follows the recent upwardly revised (due to a technical error) 1% pace in the final quarter of 2012. They see that the quarterly pace was 0.9%, rather than the consensus forecast of 0.7% and 0.3% in Q4 2012.
Further, consumer spending and exports were the main contributors to GDP. The former alone accounted for 2.3 percentage points of growth and the latter, 0.4 percentage points. They continue to write, “Business investment was the weakest since the tsunami, and private non-residential investment took off 0.3 percentage points from growth, while inventories took 0.8% off. While growth offered an upside surprise, the GDP deflator was a downside surprise. This measure of prices was 1.2% lower than a year ago, the most deflation since Q4 2011.”
They begin by noting that the world's third largest economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.5%, faster than the 2.7% expected and follows the recent upwardly revised (due to a technical error) 1% pace in the final quarter of 2012. They see that the quarterly pace was 0.9%, rather than the consensus forecast of 0.7% and 0.3% in Q4 2012.
Further, consumer spending and exports were the main contributors to GDP. The former alone accounted for 2.3 percentage points of growth and the latter, 0.4 percentage points. They continue to write, “Business investment was the weakest since the tsunami, and private non-residential investment took off 0.3 percentage points from growth, while inventories took 0.8% off. While growth offered an upside surprise, the GDP deflator was a downside surprise. This measure of prices was 1.2% lower than a year ago, the most deflation since Q4 2011.”