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Question: When you say that the "consumption share of GDP fell 3%" does this include the tax increase? What I'm asking... if you count the tax at 10% -- the money coming from the buyers could go up from 1x to 1.07x, but the money going to the sellers goes from 1x to 0.97x.

Thus the amount of spending has risen while the money to retailers has fallen (the balance going for taxes).

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These are "real GDP" (constant yen) figures so that neither the tax nor a price increase or decrease enters into the calculation

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What does Japan have to do in order to save itself from 4 lost decades?

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That's a long answer, but, if you browse through the blog, you'll see many posts offering various solutions.

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