Comments by Japan economy minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura
- Economy watchers survey shows sentiment rose to levels last seen before the virus outbreak and 2019 sales tax hike
There is no doubt that sentiment is improving but to classify it as 'really good', I'm not too sure. The Japanese economy is moving in the right direction but much like everywhere else, it remains to be seen if the recovery pace can keep up going into next year.
The more pessimistic news is that the government estimates that the output gap for the April to June quarter stood at -10.2%, the biggest drop on record.
That is to be expected given the virus crisis, but it represents a third straight quarterly drop and that does not bode well for the inflation outlook in general.
