Japan Economic News:

 https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20201109/p2g/00m/0bu/110000c

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A key index reflecting the current state of the Japanese economy rose in September for the fourth straight month, even though the economy is still recovering from the initial hit of the novel coronavirus pandemic, official data showed Monday.

The Cabinet Office's preliminary data for the coincident index of business conditions in the reporting month increased 1.4 points from August to 80.8 against the 2015 base of 100, back to the threshold of 80 for the first time since March when 89.2 was logged.

Ideas and Commentary:

As with the previous article its always good to see and hear continued improvements in the economy, but at the same time, all is not where it should be. There are still many small and medium sized businesses that are not seeing signs of improvement. 

The big business indexes seem to be some good news, that's good, but we need to be aware of what's going on in the rest of the economy. Yes while improvements in big business is good, but do we see a trickle down to the rest of the economy?

Article:

The office maintained its assessment that the Japanese economy is "bottoming out," using the same expression as in August. In that month, the government upgraded its economic assessment after having rated the economy for 12 consecutive months through July as "worsening," the most pessimistic of its five expressions.

Following the gradual economic resumption since the complete lifting of the government's state of emergency declaration over the virus in late May, the reading has continued to improve since it dropped to 71.3 in May. The figure in May was the worst since the 71.2 posted in April 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

Ideas and Commentary:

"Bottoming out" most likely meaning the economy has reached its lowest point and then maybe will be expected to show signs of improved economic activity or economy growth. 

While indexes and measurements are important, as they try to explain,using numbers, what might be happening in a specific situation, but of course they don't give us all of the information. Its a small snapshot of a small part of an economy. 

Article:

The rise in the coincident index is because "production and exports, especially those of cars, have continued to pick up," a government official told reporters.

Under the emergency declared in April, people had been asked to stay at home and nonessential businesses to suspend their operations, dealing a heavy blow to the world's third-largest economy.

The leading index of business conditions, forecasting the situation in the coming months, also rose 4.4 points to 92.9 in the reporting month, the second sharpest rise since comparable figures became available in January 1985 following a 5.4 point increase in June.

Ideas and Commentary:

An increase in production and exports is always a good sign and especially car production. Of course as in previous articles the idea of the big picture is important, but at the same time, any improvement is good, even it doesn't show the big picture. Of course there are many indexes and measurements that show many different areas of an economy, so its understood that a article or reports talks only about one area or an important area, while leaving out other indexes and there is no time etc. to talk or report about every possible index in an economy and there are just too many indexes and measurements to look at at anyone time.

Have a Nice Day and Be Safe!