Feb 15, 2021: Japan's economy shrank 4.8 percent in real terms in 2020 from a year earlier, marking the second sharpest contraction since record keeping began, owing to the adverse effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the government said in a report Monday.
According to the Cabinet Office, real gross domestic product contracted for the first time since a 5.7 percent decrease was logged in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis.
The Cabinet Office's preliminary data also showed that private consumption, which comprised more than half of Japan's GDP, dropped 5.9 percent in the recording period.
The decline was attributed to the government's first state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic issued on April 7 last year for some regions including the capital, before being expanded to cover the entire country on April 16.
The government's spring nationwide state of emergency over the virus requested that people stay at home and work remotely and a large percentage of non-essential businesses shutter their operations, leading to private consumption being hammered amid slumping domestic and overseas demand.
Private capital expenditure fell 5.8 percent in the recording year, the office's preliminary figures showed, while private residential investment slumped 7.1 percent.
Imports were down 6.8 percent, with the decline exacerbated by a fall in crude oil and related prices, the Cabinet Office said, while exports were hampered by supply chains being disrupted by domestic business shutdowns and overseas lockdowns and on overall falling demand.
In 2020, the size of real GDP came to 529.19 trillion yen (5 trillion U.S. dollars), dropping from 2019's figure of 555.80 trillion yen, the Cabinet Office said.
