Japan slips into recession, becoming the 4th-largest economy, behind the US, China and now Germany.

Japan’s economy is now the world’s fourth-largest after it contracted in the last quarter of 2023 and fell behind Germany.

The government reported the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.4% in October to December, according to Cabinet Office data on real GDP, though it grew 1.9% for all of 2023.

It contracted 2.9% in July-September. Two straight quarters of contraction are considered an indicator an economy is in a technical recession.

Japan’s economy was the second largest until 2010, when it was overtaken by China’s. Japan’s nominal GDP totaled $4.2 trillion last year, while Germany’s was $4.4 trillion, or $4.5 trillion, depending on the currency conversion.

  • ChrisMcMillan@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    It still amazes me that a country that small with that little natural resource as Germany can have such a strong and big economy!

    • notapantsday@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      Our resource used to be people, but we’re in the process of completely fucking that up. Education going downhill quickly, rapidly aging population paired with a massive push against immigration, the most important jobs having some of the worst pay and working conditions…

      We’re in a race to the bottom. Japan mas have overtaken us, but we’re folfowing closely behind.