Looking to Japan. (International Monetary Fund and World Bank to encourage Japan to strengthen its economy)(Business This Week)(includes additional international business news)(Brief Article)

Economist (US), The, April, 1998

The IMF and the World Bank, in Washington for their spring meeting, had two main items on their agenda. The first was strengthening the global financial system in the aftermath of the Asian crisis; the second was persuading Japan to pull itself-and the region-out of the economic mire. The IMF's twice-yearly outlook, like the OECD's last week, forecast a worldwide slowdown. Growth in 1998 would rise by 3.1%, with stagnant output in Japan, and sharp downward revisions in East Asia.

Japan's current-account surplus nearly doubled in February, year on year, to YEN 1.67 trillion ($13.2 billion), as weak consumer demand brought a 17% drop in imports. Growth in exports, the economy's main prop, slowed to 2.1%. Stung by criticism at home and abroad, the government provided...

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