Japanese Economy Shrank By 1.2%
The Japanese economy shrank in the period April - June with an annual rate of 1.2%, for the first time in the last three quarters, although the decline was ultimately lower than expected.
The revised data for the GDP of the second quarter, which was released today, show that the reduced exports weakened domestic economic activity, while Japan feels the impact of the Chinese economic slowdown.
The initial estimate for the second quarter of the GDP was a decline of 1.6%.
Business investments fell by 3.6%, compared with an initial estimate of a fall of 0.3%, showing that businesses remain reluctant to expand their activities in Japan.
Almunia: The Optimism For The Spanish Economy Is False
Joaquin Almunia, leading Spanish politician and former European Commissioner for Competition, has accused Spain's government of "false optimism."
In particular, speaking on CNBC, Mr. Almunia explained that the "story" for the recovery of the Spanish economy is not based on strong foundations.
"Part of the positive input for the Spanish growth comes from abroad. Exchange rate, oil price, monetary policy," he said. "There are other elements that are positive, so the reform, the restructuring of part of the banking sector thanks to the European Union, helped of course, and some internal reforms in Spain also helped, but not enough."
Since 2011, when the People's Party came to power, Spain's GDP fell by 2.1% in 2013, according to figures from Eurostat. In any case, the GDP has begun to recover: the economy grew by 1.4% and increased by 1% between the first two quarters of 2015.
Almunia noted that he was a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and a member of the government of Felipe Gonzalez from 1982 until 1991.
Also, Mr. Almunia criticized the high unemployment level in the country which was 24.5% in 2014. "It's a very serious problem and the quality of the new employment being created is very low," he said.