Japan’s economy will suffer a smaller contraction this year than initially forecast but won’t return to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels until at least early 2022, economists in a Reuters poll said.
Analysts polled were split on the Bank of Japan’s next policy move even as the economy continues to suffer from the pandemic’s fallout, underscoring a widening view that the central bank may have exhausted its ammunition to prop up growth.
The world’s third-largest economy will likely shrink 5.3 percent in the current fiscal year ending in March, the December poll of 27 analysts showed, revised up from a 5.6 percent contraction projected in November.