GDP maintains positive growth in the April-June period, but personal consumption remains sluggish, possibly extending the post-war longest period

GDP (gross domestic product) maintained positive growth in the April-June period. If the economic recovery continues until now, it may have broken the record for the longest period since the end of the war. Still, the level of personal consumption, which accounts for more than 50% of GDP, is lower than during the previous economic peak, and the strength of the Japanese economy is sluggish.

Although personal consumption briefly recovered after the coronavirus pandemic, it slumped in 2023 and 2024 when wage growth could not keep up with rising prices. Thereafter, the economy continued to pick up, and many predicted that personal consumption would push up GDP in the April-June period, with a Cabinet Office official saying that ``household purchasing power is increasing.'' However, in the first preliminary report, there was a shift to government consumption due to free education, etc., resulting in a decrease compared to the previous quarter. In the end, it remained below its pre-coronavirus peak.

On the other hand, the government says that Japan's economy is "continuing to recover moderately" after the coronavirus pandemic. If the economy had continued to expand from April to June, the ``economic expansion period'' would have been six years (24 quarters). In the past, there were expansion periods of about six years from 2002 to 2008 and from 2012 to 2018, which are on par with those.

However, the cumulative GDP increase over 6 years...