TOKYO: Japan’s unemployment rate in November dipped to its lowest level since November 1993, official data showed Tuesday, offering another sign that the world’s third-largest economy is on track to recovery even if the pace is slow. “Japan’s economy is expected to keep expanding through the first half of next year,” Masaki Kuwahara, senior economist at Nomura Securities, told AFP. Japan has battled deflation for many years and the central bank’s ultra-loose monetary policy appears to be having limited impact. The core inflation rate was a 0.9 percent rise year-on-year in November, according to data published by the internal affairs ministry, far below the two-percent target set by the BoJ. The US Federal Reserve last week announced a widely expected quarter point rate hike, and US policymakers have forecast another three rate hikes in 2018.

Source: New Strait Times December 26, 2017 02:03 UTC