There were signs the Japanese economy was strengthening before the March 11 triple crisis.
Figures out yesterday revealed a sharper than expected fall in Japanese employment in February.
Japan’s unemployment rate fell to 4.6% last month from 4.9% in January.
Separately, the government said that average monthly consumption expenditures per household for February totalled 260,793 yen, down 0.1% in nominal terms and down 0.2% in real terms from the previous year.
That was the fifth monthly fall in a row.
But retail sales rose 0.1% from February 2010 (despite forecasts for a fall of 0.5%), indicating a slight improvement in consumer confidence.
The economy added 370,000 jobs in February, the third monthly increase, another solid sign that will be reversed when the March and April figures are reported in the next two months.
The seasonally adjusted figures show more people also returned to the labour force with the number of job applicants to jobs rising to 62 per 100, the highest since the start of 2009.
The jobless figures don’t include data from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, where data collection was disrupted by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake that struck on March 11.
Later today we will get industrial production figures for February that should flesh out the picture a bit more.
Export growth improved sharply in February from January, more evidence that the economy was rebounding.
As a result, Japan’s trade balance returned to surplus in February on solid exports to Asia, after posting the first deficit in nearly two years in January due to regional holidays.
Japan logged a trade surplus of Y654.11 billion last month, compared with a surplus of Y638.28 billion in the same month a year earlier.
The rebound in February was due mainly to accelerated shipments to China following a slowdown in late January ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays in the first week of February.
Japanese total exports rose 9.0% in February from a year earlier to Y5.59 trillion, the 15th straight year-on-year gain.
The pace of export growth picked up from the 1.4% rate in January, which was the lowest rate of growth since November 2009.
Imports were up 9.9% in February to Y4.93 trillion, the 14th consecutive year on year rise following a revised growth of 12.5% in January.
Japan posted a revised trade deficit of Y475.31 billion in January, the first deficit since March 2009.
Exports to China, Japan’s biggest market, jumped 29.1% in February from a year earlier to Y1.16 trillion, up from just 0.9% in January, thanks to the late slowdown in that month.
The rise in Chinese February exports was led by metal-working machinery, power-generating machines and plastic materials.
It was the 16th consecutive annual rise in total exports but the rate of increase has slowed from the recent peak of 80% in January of last year.
Japan’s shipments to China rose 20.1% to a record high of Y1.285 trillion in December 2010.
In February, Japan’s trade surplus with China hit a record Y243.9 billion.
In fact February might prove to be the high-water mark for the economy for some time to come.
