China locks down key transportation hub and markets fear economic fallout
The government is expected to give in to demands for an end to a six-month-old, high-level talks in hopes of ending the country’s longest shutdown in history.
The World Bank, Asia Foundation, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have already written off the government as one of its biggest budget threats in a decade.
The government is expected to give in to demands for an end to a six-month-old, high-level talks in hopes of ending the country’s longest shutdown in history.
The World Bank, Asia Foundation, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have already written off the government as one of its biggest budget threats in a decade.
The government is expected to give in to demands for an end to a six-month-old, high-level talks in hopes of ending the country’s longest shutdown in history.
The government is “not going to come out of it,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters Wednesday, but the government will likely have to make some painful concessions for the sake of the economy.
“After all, as long as the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the LDP are in power, the U.S. will be watching,” wrote Bloomberg News’ James Knight in Tokyo. “And if voters get the impression that the LDP is dragging its feet over reforming the economy, they might decide to stop trusting its leaders.”
The move follows a weekend of drama involving the Bank of Japan, which last week cut its monetary-policy target of 2,000 yen to 0.5% as it sought to quell worries a recession was beginning.
With the monetary target at 0.5%, Kuroda’s government will not come anywhere close to the minimum needed to break the deflation-era record of 9,800 yen ($83) of inflation. Yet, it’s a clear signal that the Abe administration could no longer afford the luxury of doing nothing and that it has, in effect, taken control of the BOJ’s monetary policy. The governor can now step in when the BOJ is not prepared to act.
At the same time, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s sudden decision to order a government shutdown on March 18 – and then a three-day walkout – has already given the world a look at how his government will act when it needs to. In other words