Posted on: Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Japan's jobless rate down to 4.5%

Associated Press

TOKYO — Japan's unemployment rate fell to 4.5 percent in November, the government said today.

The November jobless rate is the lowest in the world's second-largest economy since January 1999, the government's statistics bureau said.

It also outstripped the average forecast by economists, surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and Nikkei News, who had expected the jobless rate to be unchanged at 4.7 percent, from October.

Japan's jobless rate has been improving along with the nation's economy, which has been on the rebound for the past two years because of robust exports, especially to China and other Asian countries. Private consumption and corporate profits and investments also have been on the rise.

But exports have tapered off recently and economists have raised concerns that the recovery may be slowing.

The government last week downgraded its economic assessment in December for the second straight month. It also said Japan's economy likely will expand 1.6 percent in the fiscal year starting in April — slower than the estimated pace for the current fiscal year.

The Japanese economy has marked six straight quarters of growth, after a long period of stagnation when moderate growth was interrupted by quarters of contraction.