Japanese Economy Grows... Nominal GDP Back to 1993 Levels

Bloomberg reports:

Japan’s economy grew more than forecast in the third quarter as consumer spending increased, shielding the expansion from a stronger yen and export slowdown likely to have a greater impact this quarter.

Gross domestic product rose an annualized 3.9 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30, following a revised 1.8 percent expansion in the previous quarter, the Cabinet Office said in Tokyo today. In nominal terms, the economy grew 2.9 percent.

The article goes on to detail that a lot of the growth was due to a purchases of fuel-efficient cars ahead of an expiration of a subsidy.

Longer term we see the remarkable fact that Japanese GDP in nominal terms is right where it was in Q3 1993 (yes 17 years ago), while real GDP is just 18% higher over that same time frame (less than 1% annualized growth).