Japan plunges into depression * Peter Martin * February 17, 2009 AUSTRALIA'S biggest and most reliable customer, Japan, has plunged into depression, with federal Treasurer Wayne Swan now warning of the worst global downturn "in our lifetimes". - Japan among worst hit - Businesses forecast losses - Australian export fears Japan's economy shrank an annualised 12.7 per cent over the December quarter, its worst result since the 1974 oil shock. Japan is by far Australia's biggest export customer, accounting for one in every five container ships that leave Australia's shores. The new figures put it among the worst-hit casualties of the global crisis. The annualised contraction of 12.7 per cent, or 3.3 per cent in quarterly terms, dwarfs those of the United States and Europe and is much worse than anything that happened to Japan during its so-called "lost decade" of recession in the 1990s. The collapse in growth fits the profile of a depression — a deep recession in which annual GDP falls by 10 per cent or more. Australia's other big customer, China, has had its growth rate almost halved from 13 to 6.8 per cent. "These figures reveal just how serious the global recession is becoming," Mr Swan said. "They follow on the heels of the worst contraction in the euro area since records began in 1980. "The last three months of 2008 are likely to have seen the sharpest synchronised downturn in the global economy in our lifetimes.

Thanks for the Forex link wish there was a way to overlay the different currencies lol It definitely verifies what Denninger is saying..

T&D Holdings Inc., Japan’s largest publicly traded life insurer, plunged 9.7 percent, as the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority asked the industry to assess how well they can withstand market shocks. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, fell 0.7 percent in Sydney as copper retreated. Brambles Ltd., the world’s biggest supplier of pallets used to move and store goods, tumbled 9.4 percent after a drop in profit prompted brokerage downgrades. “In the current market climate, there is little incentive for investors to buy stocks,” Mamoru Shimode, a Tokyo-based equity strategist at Deutsche Bank AG, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 0.8 percent to 80.58 as of 10:10 a.m. in Tokyo. Five stocks dropped for every two that advanced. The gauge has lost 10 percent this year, extending 2008’s record 43 percent tumble, as the credit crisis dragged the world’s biggest economies into recession. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 0.8 percent to 7,690.02. Benchmark measures in other Asian markets open for trading also fell. Futures on the U.S. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 1.1 percent. U.S. markets were closed yesterday for Presidents’ Day. T&D slumped 9.7 percent to 2,010 yen, tracking an 11 percent drop by the U.K.’s Legal & General Group Plc, which declined on speculation the 173-year-old British insurer may have to cut its dividend to boost capital reserves.