Japan Economic Indicators

Between 1980 and 2010 Japan had been recording trade surpluses every year due to rising exports. However, the trade balance swung to deficit in 2011, as the Fukushima nuclear disaster forced the country to increase its purchases of fossil fuels and gas in the wake of weaker yen. The surplus was back...

In Japan, the Nikkei Japan Composite Output Index tracks business trends across private sector activity, based on data collected from a representative panel of around 800 companies. The index tracks variables such as sales, new orders, employment, inventories and prices. A reading above 50 indicates...

Japan’s economy, the fourth largest in the world, is fully diversified and technologically advanced. Like in most developed countries, services account for the highest percentage of GDP (around 62 percent of GDP). Within services the most important once are wholesale and retail trade (around 7 perce...

In Japan, housing starts refers to the year-on-year change in volume of new housing construction started.

In Japan, interest rates are set by the Bank of Japan's Policy Board in its Monetary Policy Meetings. The BoJ's official interest rate is the discount rate. Monetary Policy Meetings produce a guideline for money market operations in inter-meeting periods and this guideline is written in terms of a t...

In Japan, the unemployment rate measures the number of people actively looking for a job as a percentage of the labour force.