日本經濟再度陷入衰退 Japan falls back into recession
Japan is back in recession after its economy shrank at a worse-than-expected annualised rate of 0.8 per cent in the third quarter.
今年第三季度，日本經濟按年率計算萎縮了0.8%，萎縮幅度大大超過人們預期的0.3%，而且意味着日本經濟再度陷入衰退。
The figure, which came in well below expectations of a 0.3 per cent fall, is a fresh blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to end deflation and revitalise economic growth.
對日本首相安倍晉三(Shinzo Abe)結束通縮、重振經濟增長的努力來說，這一數字可謂是一個最新打擊。
Although there is little sign of the economy falling into a downward spiral, sluggish demand makes it harder to persuade companies to raise wages and investment next year.
儘管目前幾乎沒有跡象表明日本經濟正墜入下行螺旋，但疲弱的需求將更難說服日本企業在明年提高薪資和擴大投資。
The Bank of Japan regards wage rises as essential for progress towards its goal of 2 per cent inflation.
日本央行(Bank of Japan)將薪資上漲視爲實現2%通脹率目標過程中的必要一步。
“The second straight fall in GDP underlines the downside risks to the Bank of Japan’s growth forecasts. With rising slack dampening price pressures, we remain convinced that more monetary stimulus will eventually be needed,” said Marcel Thieliant at Capital Economics in Singapore.
凱投宏觀(Capital Economics)駐新加坡的馬塞爾舠連特(Marcel Thieliant)表示：“日本國內生產總值(GDP)連續第二個季度萎縮突顯出日本央行增長預期面臨的下行風險。考慮到愈發疲軟的經濟平抑了物價壓力，我們仍然相信最終有必要出臺更多貨幣刺激。”
However, the breakdown of gross domestic product suggests there is still some momentum in the economy. Almost all of the decline was due to businesses running down inventory, which knocked 2.1 percentage points off annualised growth.
然而，GDP的分項數據表明，日本經濟中仍存在一些動力。GDP的萎縮幾乎全是由企業降低庫存導致的，這一因素將GDP年化增幅抹去了2.1個百分點。
By their nature, inventories can only fall so far. Meanwhile consumption contributed an annualised 1.2 percentage points to growth and net exports an annualised gain of 0.4 percentage point.
本質上說，庫存只能降至這種水平。消費爲GDP年化增幅貢獻了1.2個百分點，淨出口貢獻了0.4個百分點。
But investment remained weak, knocking 0.7 percentage point off the annualised growth rate. Mr Abe is pushing Japanese companies to invest more but they often choose to do so overseas.
但投資仍然疲弱，將GDP年化增幅抹去了0.7個百分點。安倍正敦促日本企業擴大投資，但這些企業往往選擇的是擴大海外投資。
Japan’s government is preparing a supplementary budget to boost the economy. It has signalled a bad GDP figure could encourage it to expand that stimulus.
日本政府正準備追加預算，以刺激經濟增長。日本政府表示，糟糕的GDP數據可能會促使其擴大這種刺激。
