Japan Real Time Charts and Data

Edward Hugh is only able to update this blog from time to time, but he does run a lively Twitter account with plenty of Japan related comment. He also maintains a collection of constantly updated Japan data charts with short updates on a Storify dedicated page Is Japan Once More Back in Deflation?

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Japanese savings shrink

The Nippon Keizai Shimbun is reporting today that
"Japanese household financial assets totaled 1,433.5 trillion yen at the end of December, falling 5.7% on the year to a 4-year low, the Bank of Japan's preliminary data released Tuesday showed. This is the sharpest annual drop on record.

Slumping stock and investment trust prices took a toll on household assets. Stock holdings plunged 40.2% on the year to 87.8 trillion yen, while investment trust beneficiary receipts decreased 33.4% to 47.9 trillion yen.

In contrast, as Japanese sought to stash money in safer places, cash bank deposits inched up 0.9% to 791.6 trillion yen, 455.1 trillion yen of which were in time deposits, up 2.5%."

The highlighting is mine...this is not good news for a country where a large proportion of the population is expecting to live off of savings fairly shortly. Further, Japanese consumers are unlikely to provide a boost to GDP as they are not going to increase discretionary spending in the face of investment losses.