Japan records its worst GDP amid COVID-19 crisis

New Delhi, Aug 17: Japan, the world's third-largest economy, was hit by its biggest economic slump on record in the second quarter amid the COVID-19 pandemic, wiping out the benefits brought by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Abenomics" stimulus policies deployed in late 2012.

According to government data released on Monday, Japan saw gross domestic product (GDP) fall 7.8 per cent in the second quarter (April-June) compared with the previous quarter, or 27.8 per cent on an annualised basis, marking the biggest decline since comparable data became available in 1980.

The country slipped into recession earlier this year following two successive quarters of economic contraction.

"The big decline can be explained by the decrease in consumption and exports," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.

"I expect growth to turn positive in the July-September quarter. But globally, the rebound is sluggish everywhere except for China", Minami added.

The size of Japan's real GDP shrank to 485 trillion yen, which is the lowest since April-June 2011, when the East Asian island nation was still suffering from two decades of deflation and economic stagnation.